TREASURE  TROVE 


TREASURE  TROVE 


BY 
C.  A.  DAWSON  SCOTT 


NEW  YORK 

DUFFIELD  &  COMPANY 
1909 


COPYRIGHT,  1909,  BY 
DUFFIELD  &  COMPANY 


THE  PREMIER  PRESS 
NEW   YORK 


To  my 
Aunts,  Great-aunts,  'Aunts-in-law  and  Step-aunts 

this  book 
is  respectfully  dedicated 


2133040 


TREASURE  TROVE 

CHAPTER   I 

MRS.  SMART  of  The  Laurels,  Eastham,  a  suburb 
some  dozen  or  so  miles  from  Charing  Cross,  stood 
thoughtfully  considering  a  small  oblong  package, 
wrapped  in  brown  paper  and  tied  with  string.  For 
some  days  it  had  lain  on  the  dining-room  mantel- 
shelf, and  it  being  her  son's  custom  to  pile  the  rub- 
bish of  his  correspondence  on  that  particular  spot, 
she  had  not  questioned  its  right  to  be  there.  That 
morning,  however,  as  Willy  was  hastily  finishing 
his  breakfast  she  had  lightly  referred  to  it.  She 
was  a  woman  of  method,  used  to  tidying  up  after 
her  men-folk,  and  if  it  were  his,  she  would  put  it 
in  his  room.  But  Willy,  deep  in  the  morning  paper, 
had  shaken  his  head.  He  knew  nothing  about  it; 
if  it  did  not  belong  to  his  mother,  he  supposed  that 
his  sister  must  have  left  it  there. 

Mrs.  Smart  had  let  the  subject  drop,  not  because 
she  had  arrived  at  a  solution  of  the  small  mystery, 
but  because  being  naturally  secretive,  she  would 
prefer  to  pursue  her  investigations  when  alone.  The 
package  was  not  Eva's,  not  hers,  not  her  son's,  so 
much  she  knew.  To  whom,  then,  did  it  belong? 
Who  had  left  it  there  ?  She  had  lifted  it  when 
dusting,  and  had  thus  become  aware  of  its  unusual 
weight;  and  it  now  suddenly  occurred  to  her  that 


4  TREASURE   TROVE 

whereas  she  had  not  noticed  it  before  the  night  of 
the  burglary,  it  seemed  to  have  been  lying  on  that 
corner  of  the  mantel-shelf  ever  since. 

People  such  as  the  Smarts,  middle-class,  hard- 
working, law-abiding,  may  admit  the  existence  of 
a  criminal  class,  but  they  think  of  it  as  something 
remote,  something  with  which  they  cannot  by  any 
possibility  be  brought  into  contact.  The  dark  deeds 
of  which  they  read  in  newspapers  and  detective 
stories  are  merely  a  sauce  with  which  to  season 
their  sense  of  snug  security.  Such  things  do  not 
happen  to  everyday  people  living  in  the  suburbs. 
A  burglary  in  Eastham?  Such  a  thing  had  not 
occurred  within  the  memory  of  man,  and  that  it 
should  have  taken  place  in  a  house,  similar  to  all 
the  other  houses,  thrilled  the  nerves  of  their  owners. 
What  had  happened  to  one  might  happen  to  an- 
other! And  not  only  the  Smarts  but  their  neigh- 
bours on  each  side,  and  up  and  down  all  the  quiet 
roads,  were  disturbed  and  distressed  by  the  thief's 
unexpected  and,  as  it  proved,  futile  visit. 

For  the  Smarts  had  not  suffered  materially.  The 
widowed  mother,  like  most  women  who  at  some 
period  of  their  lives  have  had  their  rest  broken  by 
infantile  needs  and  demands,  was  a  light  sleeper; 
and  the  burglar  could  not  have  more  than  settled 
to  his  work  when  the  succession  of  slight,  unavoid- 
able sounds  which  he  made  had  disturbed  her. 
Awake  at  once,  she  had  sat  up  to  listen,  but  the 
noises  were  faint,  too  faint  for  location.  They 


TREASURE  TROVE        5 

might  have  been  the  midnight  creak  of  furniture, 
the  scurrying  of  a  mouse,  the  wind.  They  might 
have  been,  but  Mrs.  Smart  had  not  thought  that 
they  were.  Thrusting  her  feet  into  the  woollen 
slippers  which  Eva  had  crocheted  for  her,  she  had 
gone  to  the  door.  Other  ears  were  on  the  alert, 
however,  and  as  she  opened  it,  there  was  no  mis- 
taking the  fact  that  somebody,  driven  by  fear,  was 
hastily  beating  a  retreat. 

Mrs.  Smart  had  called  her  son,  and  together  they 
had  gone  down  to  investigate.  Willy,  man-like,  had 
been  scornful  of  feminine  alarms  and  excursions, 
and  it  was  not  until  his  candle  had  made  darkness 
visible  in  the  lower  regions  that  he  saw  reason  to 
change  his  opinion.  The  passage  between  the  five 
rooms  on  that  floor,  a  passage  dignified  by  the  name 
of  hall,  was  much  as  usual,  an  empty  place  floored 
with  oilcloth  and  hung  with  hats;  but  Mrs.  Smart 
was  wont  before  following  her  children  upstairs  to 
bed,  to  turn  the  keys  of  both  dining  and  drawing- 
room,  and  the  door  of  the  former  stood  open. 

"  I  know  I  locked  it,"  she  had  murmured,  as  she 
and  her  son  went  cautiously  forward.  They  were 
two,  and  being  a  person  of  stolid  habit,  she  was  not 
really  afraid;  but  she  had  felt  the  menace  of  the 
dark,  of  the  house  given  over  for  the  night  to  un- 
known influences,  of  a  familiar  place  seen  under 
unusual  circumstances.  Willy  had  raised  his  candle 
as  they  stepped  into  the  room,  and  she  had  then 
perceived  that  the  burglar,  by  her  long  expected, 


6  TREASURE   TROVE 

had  really  come  and  been  disturbed  and  gone  again, 
for  the  sideboard  doors  stood  open  and  on  the  floor, 
neatly  sorted  into  two  lots,  the  one  of  electro,  the 
other  of  plate,  lay  the  family  silver. 

"  The  beggar  can't  have  got  far,"  Willy  had  ex- 
claimed, his  sense  of  possession  outraged,  his  love 
of  the  chase  aroused,  and  he  had  rushed  out  in 
quest  of  the  marauder;  but  his  mother,  less  impul- 
sive, had  lighted  the  gas  and  stopped  to  count  over 
the  precious  things  upon  the  floor.  She  had  a  good 
deal  of  silver,  having  inherited  some  from  a  grand- 
mother, but  more  through  her  husband ;  and  though 
she  kept  it  in  the  dining-room  sideboard,  she  had 
had  the  doors  thereof  fitted  with  strong  and  intri- 
cate fastenings.  Every  night  the  tea  and  coffee 
services,  the  rich  plate  basket  and  the  drawing-room 
inkstand  were  brought  to  her  by  the  maid  of  all 
work,  and  locked  away.  "  It  is  as  safe  there  as  in 
my  bedroom,"  she  had  said,  being,  for  all  her  stout 
heart,  a  little  afraid  of  the  thief  who  cometh  by 
night. 

But  it  had  not  been  safe,  and  when  her  son  was 
come  back  from  his  fruitless  chase  of  the  burglar 
he  had  impressed  this  upon  her. 

"  The  man  got  in — and  out — by  the  scullery 
window,"  he  had  said  disgustedly.  "  The  catch  is 
broken  and  should  have  been  seen  to,  but  he  has 
got  clean  away.  If  the  night  had  not  been  so  dark 
I  would  have  tried  to  run  him  down."  But  his  at- 
tire, pyjamas  and  a  thick  monkish  dressing-gown, 


TREASURE    TROVE  7 

grey  and  roped  in,  would  hardly  have  allowed  him 
to  make  the  attempt.  Mrs.  Smart,  motherly  woman, 
had  been  secretly  relieved  to  hear  that  the  man  had 
escaped.  He  had  not  taken  so  much  as  a  spoon, 
and  that  being  so,  she  bore  him  little  malice.  On 
the  other  hand,  he  might  have  been  armed,  might 
even,  if  the  chase  had  been  hot,  have  used  his 
weapon.  She  had  begun  with  careful  fingers  to 
collect  the  silver  and  restore  it  to  its  shelf  in  the  old 
sideboard,  and  she  went  on  with  her  work.  It  is 
not  always  wise  to  utter  your  thoughts. 

Willy  had  watched  her,  but  without  offering  to 
help.  He  was  excited,  even  elated,  by  what  had 
come  to  pass.  For  the  first  time  he  had  caught  a 
glimpse  of  what  lay  beyond  the  tame  domesticity 
of  his  life,  of  strange  worlds  and  stranger  men.  He 
was  suburban-bred  and  city-bound,  a  clerk  in  a 
stock-broker's  office,  but  his  spirit  responded  to  the 
call  of  the  unusual.  He  felt,  as  he  had  so  often 
before,  that  somewhere  in  the  open,  men  were  strug- 
gling with  difficulties,  facing  dangers  and  enduring 
hardships,  and  that  his  place  was  with  them  rather 
than  on  a  stool  behind  doors.  But  he  was  caught  in 
the  toils,  a  victim  to  his  environment.  He  would 
never  be  able  to  shake  himself  free. 

"  To-morrow,"  he  had  said  at  last,  putting  his 
momentary  sense  of  the  possibilities  of  life  on  one 
side.  "  To-morrow  I  shall  buy  a  safe ;  and  anyway, 
it's  foolish  of  you,  Mother,  to  keep  so  many  things 
in  the  house."  He  had  bent  down  until  he  could 


8        TREASURE  TROVE 

see  the  dark  gleam  of  the  silver  where  it  lay  at  the 
back  of  the  shelves.  "  Those  candelabra  and  salvers 
and  sauce-bowls  and  that  other  tea-service,  we  never 
use  them  and  they  might  just  as  well  be  at  the 
bank." 

But  Mrs.  Smart  would  not  hear  of  their  being 
taken  from  her.  Willy  might  set  the  police  upon 
the  burglar's  track  and  waste  money  upon  a  safe, 
but  she  would  cling  to  her  silver,  to  the  candle-cup 
which  her  grandmother  had  left  her,  to  the  thin, 
rat-tailed  spoons  with  the  Smart  crest  upon  the 
handle,  and  all  the  other  pieces  big  and  little.  They 
were  hers,  they  would  be  her  children's,  and  she 
liked  to  clean  and  polish  them.  If  they  were  to  be 
stored  in  the  dark  cellars  of  the  bank  it  would 
hardly  seem  as  if  they  belonged  to  her !  So  Willy, 
much  against  his  better  judgment,  had  had  to  give 
way.  When  morning  came  he  had  sought  the  help 
of  the  police,  and  they  had  done  their  best,  but  so 
far  unavailingly.  The  burglar  had  become  part  of 
the  night,  unseen  he  had  come  and  gone,  leaving 
nothing  by  which  he  could  be  traced.  For  a  mo- 
ment he  had  troubled  the  quiet  lives  of  Mrs.  Smart 
and  her  children,  and  then  he  was  gone  again,  no 
man  knew  whither. 

The  good  woman's  thoughts  were  full  of  him  as, 
after  seeing  Willy  off  that  morning,  she  turned 
back  into  the  house.  Was  it  possible  that  he  had 
had  anything  to  do  with  the  heavy,  knobbly  pack- 
age on  the  mantel-shelf?  She  called  to  Linda,  the 


TREASURE  TROVE        9 

general  servant,  as  she  went  into  the  dining-room, 
and  the  girl  followed  her.  She  had  been  waiting  to 
clear  away  the  breakfast  dishes. 

"  Do  you  know  anything  about  this  ?  "  she  asked 
casually,  as  Linda  came  round  the  table  with  her 
tray ;  and  she  touched  the  little  parcel  with  a  finger. 

Linda  was  a  Norwegian,  a  good  and  trustworthy 
girl  with  ambitions.  She  had  come  over  to  learn 
English  ways,  in  order  on  her  return  to  get  a  situa- 
tion in  a  hotel.  She  did  not  like  being  away  from 
home.  She  could  not  understand  how  anybody 
could  live  contentedly  in  such  a  flat,  over-populated 
country  as  England,  but  she  did  her  best  to  assimi- 
late all  the  information  she  could.  The  waitresses 
in  a  Norwegian  hotel  who  know  English  and  the 
ways  of  English  people  do  very  well  in  the  matter 
of  tips. 

"  I  tink  it  Mr.  Willy's,"  said  she  composedly. 
She  had  that  sad  dignity  of  manner  which  is  pos- 
sessed by  so  many  of  her  countrywomen,  and  which 
seems  to  come  from  a  lifelong  contemplation  of  the 
majesty  and  poverty,  the  cruel  grandeur  and  the 
waste  beauty  of  their  native  land. 

"  Then  I  must  put  it  in  his  room,"  her  mistress 
said.  Instinct  was  impelling  her  along  a  road  by 
no  means  strange.  She  picked  up  the  parcel,  and 
as  she  did  so,  caught  the  faint  jingle  and  clink  of 
displaced  metal.  Her  interest  deepened,  but  she 
felt  that  if  that  brown-paper  wrapping  contained 
anything  of  value,  there  was  the  greater  need  for 


io  TREASURE   TROVE 

her  to  act  with  caution.  As  to  combining  that  cau- 
tion with  straightforwardness  and  honesty,  the  idea 
did  not  so  much  as  occur  to  her.  Mrs.  Smart's 
mental  processes  were  dim  as  those  of  the  contented 
tabby  in  the  kitchen  and  did  not  include  the  stir- 
rings and  suggestions  of  conscience.  Man  has  to 
become  introspective  before  he  can  invent  the  postu- 
lates of  good  and  evil.  "  I  will  do  the  marketing 
this  morning,"  continued  she,  "and  as  Miss  Eva 
will  be  home  to-morrow,  you  had  better  get  on  with 
the  cleaning  of  her  room." 

It  was  her  custom  to  go  herself  to  the  shops,  to 
choose  the  meat  and  vegetables  for  the  evening 
meal,  or  if  she  were  prevented,  to  send  the  carefully 
trained  Linda.  But  before  she  could  go  out  there 
was  work  to  be  done,  beds  to  make  and  rooms  to 
dust.  The  package  in  one  hand,  she  went  upstairs, 
and  Linda,  following  her,  saw  her  open  her  son's  tie 
and  collar  drawer  and  put  it  inside.  But  Linda  was 
scarcely  interested.  The  concerns  of  the  people 
with  whom  she  lived  were  not  her  concerns.  Before 
very  long  she  would  be  going  home,  to  forget  all 
about  them,  and  meanwhile  she  was,  though  per- 
haps not  to  outward  seeming,  preoccupied  and  in- 
different. 

The  two  worked  together  in  silence  until  the  bed- 
rooms had  resumed  their  daytime  air  of  chill  spot- 
lessness,  and  then  Mrs.  Smart  dressed  and  went  out. 
She  was  a  brisk  and  active  woman  of  forty-six, 
and  though  weighing  twelve  stone,  was  as  light  on 


TREASURE   TROVE  11 

her  feet  as  her  young  daughter.  She  stepped 
smartly  along  the  asphalted  pavement,  vaguely  con- 
scious of  fresh  air,  sunshine  and  a  bracing  wind,  for 
she  enjoyed  life,  her  own  fine  health,  and  all  the 
interests  of  her  solid  position.  Her  income,  though 
small,  overlapped  her  expenses;  her  simple  hopes 
were  likely  of  fulfilment,  and  though  her  past  had 
been  troubled  with  more  than  one  sorrow,  her  fu- 
ture promised  fair.  She  was  a  comfortable,  moth- 
erly woman,  tall  and  of  a  good  carriage,  with 
bright  dark  eyes,  dark  hair  and  a  warm  colour.  As 
she  walked  up  the  High  Street,  looking  into  the 
shop  windows  for  what  she  wanted,  selecting,  ap- 
praising and  bargaining,  she  seemed  a  model  of  her 
type — the  self-respecting,  thrifty,  conventional  Eng- 
lish matron. 

Good  luck  attended  her  shopping,  for  she  pres- 
ently obtained  a  bargain  in  the  shape  of  a  pheasant 
which  the  poulterer  did  not  dare  to  keep  any  longer, 
while  in  one  of  the  smaller  green-grocers  she 
chanced  upon  some  belated  mushrooms.  She  was 
an  excellent  cook  and  liked  to  make  use  of  her  skill. 
The  pheasant,  with  potato  soup  to  precede  it  and  a 
mushroom  savoury  to  follow,  would  make  a  tooth- 
some meal  for  Willy  after  his  long  day  at  the 
office. 

She  came  home  jubilant,  her  purchases  in  a  string 
bag  at  her  side,  and  while  unpacking  them  in  the 
bright  and  cheery  kitchen,  was  all  loquacity  and 
good  humour.  She  told  the  tale  of  her  chaffering 


12  TREASURE    TROVE 

with  the  shopman,  of  how  she  had  beaten  him 
down  and  beaten  him  down,  until  he  had 
agreed  to  take  tenpence,  yes,  actually  tenpence 
less,  than  he  had  asked  at  first.  It  was  a 
hen  bird,  and  hens  were  always  the  more  ten- 
der; altogether  she  had  a  bargain.  As  to  the 
mushrooms,  they  were  buttons,  hardly  a  big  one 
among  them.  Finally  she  unrolled  a  cod's  head, 
for  which  she  had  paid  twopence.  Willy  should 
have  fish  cakes  for  his  breakfast  and  she  would  get 
them  ready  overnight.  It  was  a  good  big  head,  and 
only  twopence.  Linda  might  have  some  of  it,  there 
would  be  enough  for  all,  and  pickings  for  Peter,  the 
cat. 

Linda  glanced  at  the  clock,  but  her  mistress 
averred  that  the  midday  meal  was  of  no  importance. 
The  bit  of  steak  left  over  from  the  preceding  even- 
ing might  be  warmed  up  with  the  three  cold  pota- 
toes that  were  in  the  larder,  and  a  little  of  the 
brown  gravy.  But  not  too  much.  She  would  want 
some  of  it  for  her  operations  after  tea.  Was  she 
then  going  to  cook  the  supper?  But  certainly. 
Linda  might  help,  might  lay  the  cloth  and  prepare 
the  breadcrumbs,  but  the  triumph  of  the  dainty  meal 
must  be  hers,  hers  alone. 

Mrs.  Smart  had  married  young  and  married  well. 
She  had  been  a  handsome  girl,  and  if  she  had  cared 
to  do  so,  might  still  have  passed  for  a  handsome 
woman;  but  after  her  husband's  death  the  more 
masculine  side  of  her  character  had  asserted  itself. 


TREASURE    TROVE  13 

"  I  must  be  comfortable,"  she  had  said  as  she 
loosened  her  corsets,  brushed  back  her  fringe  and 
provided  herself  with  a  pair  of  felt  slippers.  "  I 
don't  want  to  marry  again,  so  why  should  I 
bother?" 

And  it  was  true  that  she  did  not  wish  to  attract 
the  notice  and  liking  of  the  other  sex.  She  had 
married  for  love,  she  had  borne  and  brought  up 
her  children,  and  with  the  death  of  her  husband 
that  phase  of  her  life  had  come  to  an  end.  In  his 
grave  she  had  buried  her  youth. 

After  her  light  luncheon  had  been  discussed  and 
cleared  away  Mrs.  Smart  went  up  to  her  room. 
Rising  early,  her  afternoon  nap  had  come  to  be  al- 
most a  necessity,  and  certainly  a  comfort.  In  order 
to  obtain  it,  she  had  outspokenly  discouraged  the 
early  caller.  She  was  at  home  after  four,  but  she 
said  quite  frankly  that  before  that  she  was  either 
dressing  or  asleep.  She  had  not  many  reticences, 
being  at  once  too  courageous  and  too  simple  to  per- 
ceive the  need  for  them. 

On  this  particular  afternoon,  however,  she  did 
not  go  straight  to  her  room.  Linda  was  washing 
up  in  the  scullery  and  the  kitchen  door  was  shut. 
The  opportunity  for  her  to  repossess  herself  of  the 
brown-paper  package  was  come. 

The  Laurels  was  ten-roomed,  with  a  bathroom 
abutting  over  the  low-ceiled  scullery,  and  beyond  it 
four  bedchambers,  the  servant's,  Willy's,  her  own, 
and  Eva's.  The  house  faced  west,  and  the  afternoon 


14  TREASURE    TROVE 

sun  was  already  throwing  a  shaft  of  light  in  at 
the  boy's  window.  With  the  foolish  carefulness  of 
the  housewife,  Mrs.  Smart  stepped  noiselessly  across 
the  floor  and  lowered  the  blind.  It  might  be  true 
that  the  sun  gave  health,  but  it  had  been  ascer- 
tained that  it  abstracted  colour  from  hangings  and 
carpets,  and  she  preferred  to  stake  her  faith  on  the 
side  of  what  was  proven. 

She  stood  for  a  moment  to  look  about  her.  The 
narrow  iron  bedstead,  the  big  new  safe,  the  lino- 
leum-covered floor,  all  spoke  to  her  of  her  first-born 
and  dearest  child.  It  seemed  like  yesterday  that 
she  had  furnished  the  room  for  him,  and  yet  it 
was  more  than  ten  years  ago.  How  quickly  the 
children  had  grown  up!  She  sighed  as  she  re- 
flected that  it  would  not  be  long  now  before  Willy 
would  have  a  business  of  his  own,  before  he  would 
slip  out  from  under  her  cherishing  wing  to  become 
the  husband  and  father  in  a  new  home.  She  had 
had  three  babies,  one  was  lying  with  its  father  in 
the  churchyard  on  the  hill,  and  the  others  were  man 
and  woman.  Alas  for  the  flight  of  time  and  all  that 
it  took  with  it! 

A  black  oak  chest,  old  and  carefully  polished, 
stood  on  one  side  of  the  bed.  Only  the  preceding 
week  she  had  rubbed  the  dark  wood  until  it  shone, 
for  she  loved  housework,  loved  to  see  her  furniture 
gleam  and  to  know  that  it  was  good.  She  took  a 
drawer  by  the  handle  and  it  came  smoothly  towards 
her.  Mrs.  Smart's  doors  did  not  warp,  nor  her 


TREASURE   TROVE  15 

drawers  stick  in  their  frames,  for  they  had  been 
made  of  seasoned  wood  and  fed  with  a  polish  of 
which  her  mother  had  given  her  the  recipe.  She 
had  the  greatest  contempt  for  what  she  called 
"  modern  stuff,  gimcracks." 

Where  she  had  placed  it,  on  the  new  dark-red 
tie  which  had  been  at  the  bottom  of  her  boy's  will- 
ingness to  accompany  her  to  church  on  the  preced- 
ing Sunday,  lay  the  small  and  heavy  package.  Mrs. 
Smart  picked  it  up  rather  hastily,  pushed  the  drawer 
gently  to  again,  and  went  across  the  landing  to  her 
room.  Only  when  her  door  was  closed  behind  her 
did  she  feel  safe,  and  even  then  she  stood  for  a 
moment  hesitating.  It  was  unlikely  that  anybody 
would  disturb  her,  but  she  would  feel  happier  if  she 
were  absolutely  secure.  She  had  not  locked  her 
door  since  Willy  was  a  baby;  but  now,  after  that 
momentary  hesitation,  she  turned  the  key. 

The  package  consisted  of  a  stout  paper  bag, 
folded  on  itself  and  tied  across  with  string.  Feel- 
ing it  carefully,  she  made  out  a  number  of  lumps, 
the  movement  of  which  under  her  fingers  gave  out 
again,  that  faint  metallic  clink.  Mrs.  Smart  jerked 
at  the  easy  knot,  but  her  hands  were  trembling  with 
excitement,  and  she  had  to  pause  and  pull  herself 
together.  At  last  the  knot  yielded,  the  bag  fell 
open,  and  in  an  instant  she  had  poured  into  the 
basin  of  her  matronly  lap  a  multitude  of  golden 
and  glittering  things. 


THE  circumstances  of  Mrs.  Smart's  life  had  been 
and  were  likely  to  continue  narrow  and  circum- 
scribed, but  such  as  they  were  she  was  content  with 
them.  She  stood  on  that  rung  of  the  social  ladder 
which  seemed  to  her  the  most  desirable  and  con- 
venient; and  whenever  she  looked  up  or  down,  she 
did  it  pharisaically. 

The  jewels  in  her  lap,  however,  made  her  envious. 
Such  things  were  outside  her  life  as  they  were  out- 
side her  experience,  for,  strange  as  it  may  seem, 
she  had  never  possessed  a  gem,  and  seldom  seen 
one.  On  the  rare  occasions  that  she  went  to  town, 
it  was  either  on  a  shopping  expedition  to  St.  Paul's 
Churchyard  or  to  the  Haymarket  Stores,  and 
neither  of  these  places  took  her  through  Bond 
Street.  She  was  not  a  loiterer,  she  did  not  care  to 
stand  and  gaze  at  shop  windows,  but  went  briskly 
about  her  business,  and  that  accomplished,  either 
finished  the  day  by  taking  her  children  to  a  place  of 
entertainment  or  returned  to  her  suburban  home. 
She  knew  nothing,  therefore,  of  shops  that  cater 
for  the  wealthy,  of  the  rare  and  beautiful  objects 
with  which  they  are  filled,  or  of  the  sums  which 
these  may  realise;  and  she  had  not  hitherto  sus- 
pected that  flashing  rainbowy  things  held  for  her 
any  fascination. 

16 


TREASURE   TROVE  17 

Yet  her  first  sensation  as  she  tilted  up  the  brown 
paper  bag  and  beheld  its  contents,  had  been  one  of 
amazed  but  envious  admiration.  She  had  not  pulled 
down  the  blind  in  her  own  room,  and  a  broadening 
streak  of  sunlight  lay  across  her  knee.  In  it  the 
confused  mass  of  jewels  winked  and  trembled  in 
many-coloured  glory,  and  the  soul  of  the  woman 
who  had  so  strangely  acquired  it  trembled  too,  but 
in  a  wonder  and  ecstasy  which  for  the  time  being 
drowned  all  practical  issues.  With  almost  reverent 
fingers  she  disentangled  a  brooch  from  the  glowing 
heap,  a  brooch  valuable  for  its  workmanship  as 
well  as  for  the  diamonds  and  rubies  with  which  it 
was  studded.  Bow-shaped,  with  two  loops  and  two 
ends,  it  had  been  designed  in  France  and  worn  at 
the  court  of  Marie  Antoinette.  Between  the  ends 
hung  a  single  pear-shaped  pearl  headed  by  a  dia- 
mond, and  the  pearl,  of  a  later  date  than  the  rest 
of  the  brooch,  was  slightly  flawed.  Mrs.  Smart 
looked  at  it  but  without  noting  these  details.  For 
the  moment  she  had  forgotten  her  surroundings  and 
was  lost  in  a  maze  of  light  and  colour  and  unimag- 
ined  loveliness;  but  she  was  too  ignorant  to  be 
critical.  Who  would  have  thought  that  the  world 
contained  red  stones  that  could  glow  and  white 
stones  that  could  glitter  like  these?  Not  Araminta 
Smart,  who  knew  nothing  of  pigeon-blood  rubies 
and  diamonds  of  the  first  water. 

She  moved  the  brooch  to  and  fro  in  the  warm 
light  for  some  seconds,  and  then  glanced  hastily 


18  TREASURE   TROVE 

about.  The  first  ecstasy  had  given  place  to  caution 
and  she  must  assure  herself  that  she  was  safe,  that 
no  human  eye  could  spy  out  her  treasures.  But  the 
imitation  lace  curtains  met  across  the  windows,  the 
short  muslin  blinds  were  impervious  to  glances  and 
the  door  was  locked.  She  felt  glad  to  think  that 
she  had  put  up  the  clean  curtains  without  waiting 
another  week.  The  others  had  sagged  a  little,  had 
fallen  apart,  and  anyone  who  had  tried  might  have 
looked  between  them.  But  with  these  she  felt  ab- 
solutely secure. 

Reassured,  she  bent  forward  and  pushed  aside  a 
china  tray,  scent  bottles  and  a  ring  stand.  Such 
things  were  in  Eastham  considered  appropriate  to 
dressing-tables.  Mrs.  Smart  had  only  two  rings, 
wedding  and  keeper,  and  those  she  always  wore; 
she  never  used  scent;  she  had  no  powder  to  put  in 
the  painted  china  pots,  and  she  liked,  being  a  tidy 
woman,  to  keep  her  brush,  comb  and  hairpins  in  the 
centre  drawer  of  the  dressing-table.  So  all  these 
china  objects,  like  the  imitation  lace  curtains  and  the 
trim  short  muslin  blinds,  were  merely  part  of  the 
conventional  detail  of  her  days.  They  had  no 
beauty  and  were  of  little  use,  save  as  an  outward 
and  visible  sign  of  likeness  to  the  common  herd. 

Having  made  a  space  on  the  white  duchesse  cover, 
Mrs.  Smart  set  the  brooch  down  and  turned  her 
attention  to  what  remained.  Beneath  the  bow  had 
lain  a  sparkling  but  somewhat  crushed  piece  of 
jewellery.  This  when  released  from  the  pins  and 


TREASURE    TROVE  19 

catching  edges  of  some  small  brooches  and  straight- 
ened out  upon  her  knee,  proved  to  be  a  heavily  set 
collar  of  sapphires.  Not  that  she  knew  their  name ! 
To  her  they  were  merely  stones  of  different  colours, 
dark  blue,  light  blue,  green  and  white,  four  rows 
of  them  with,  depending  from  the  centre  of  the 
bottom  row,  five  large  misty  gems — star  sapphires. 
It  was  a  beautiful  ornament  and  very  valuable,  for 
the  stones  were  brilliant,  of  a  fair  size  and  had  been 
carefully  matched.  Mrs.  Smart  did  not  know  this, 
but  she  felt  that  any  one  of  these  gems  would  be  too 
large  for  her  to  wear  in  a  ring,  and  here  were — she 
guessed  astutely — over  a  hundred,  all  large,  all  fine 
and  set  in  one  necklace.  To  this  woman,  inexper- 
ienced save  in  small  domestic  matters,  who  pos- 
sessed for  her  greatest  treasure  a  string  of  onyx 
beads  and  who  had  seen  only  the  cheap  trinkets 
of  her  neighbours,  this  superb  ornament  shone  with 
an  exaggerated  lustre.  Was  there  anybody  who  as 
a  matter  of  everyday  occurrence  could  clasp  these 
rows  of  stones  about  her  neck?  Mrs.  Smart  thought 
of  Eva's  girlish  throat,  so  round,  so  full,  and  tried 
to  fancy  it  encircled  by  the  collar.  But  no,  the  orna- 
ment would  look  out  of  place.  It  was  too  gorgeous 
for  persons  of  her  class.  It  belonged  to  those  who 
could  wear  it  as  carelessly  as  she  her  beads,  to 
people  of  whom  she  had  read,  whom  she  had  even 
seen, — she  on  the  pavement  among  the  crowd  and 
they  in  their  carriages. 

Beside  the  sapphire  collar  lay  the  three  pieces 


20  TREASURE    TROVE 

of  a  small  jointed  tiara.  Mrs  Smart  connected  them 
and  laid  them  on  the  dressing-table,  but  they  did  not 
affect  her  as  had  the  other  ornament.  The  diamonds 
were  of  the  first  water,  with  a  particularly  fine  one 
in  the  centre  of  each  piece  and  the  design  was  good. 
But  she  could  more  easily  imagine  these  stones 
sparkling  among  Eva's  dark  locks,  than  she  could 
fancy  the  regal-looking  collar  about  her  neck.  She 
thought  of  the  subscription  dances,  the  first  of  which 
was  to  take  place  during  the  following  week  and  of 
Eva  in  her  pale  pink  frock.  What  a  sensation  she 
would  create  if  she  were  to  appear  in  the  tiara.  But 
no!  Mrs.  Smart  knew  her  neighbours.  There 
would  be  no  sensation,  there  would  be  only  dis- 
approval and  whispers  of  *  Parisian  diamonds,  imi- 
tation stones,  modern  paste/  Not  for  one  instant 
would  they  believe  the  stones  to  be  real.  A  diamond 
tiara  on  the  head  of  a  suburban  girl  at  a  sub- 
scription dance  got  up  by  the  local  dentist!  Mrs. 
Smart  did  not  know  why,  but  she  felt  that  it  would 
be  out  of  place.  The  other  girls  would  wear  trifling 
enamel  pendants  or  tiny  lockets,  even  their  elders 
would  only  have  a  brooch  or  two  of  diamond  cut- 
tings or  an  ornament  of  seed  pearls,  or  something 
old-fashioned  but  good,  which  had  been  handed 
down  from  mother  to  daughter.  She  heaved  a  little 
sigh.  The  tiara  was  so  beautiful,  the  collar  was 
beyond  compare  and  the  brooch — the  brooch  was  a 
wonder  and  a  strange  delight;  and  yet  these  things 
were  not  for  her  or  hers.  For  the  first  time  in  her 


TREASURE   TROVE  21 

self-satisfied  existence  she  came  to  a  dim  knowledge 
of  joys  that  might  be  part  of  the  complicated  lives 
of  the  great,  of  joys  which  would  not  have  been 
entirely  alien  to  her.  It  must  be  a  pleasure  to  own 
jewels,  it  must  be  a  pleasure  to  wear  them  and  a 
further  pleasure  to  hand  them  on  as  she  would  hand 
on  the  rat-tailed  silver  and  the  old  candle  cup.  The 
jewels  had  caught  her  up  into  the  sisterhood  of 
women,  had  made  her  one  with  all  who  in  the  past 
had  loved  the  imprisoned  light  of  gems,  with  all 
to  whom  it  was  a  present  joy,  and  with  those  as 
yet  unborn  but  who  in  their  turn  must  inherit  the 
earth. 

A  few  small  brooches  had  been  entangled  with 
the  collar  and  tiara,  and  these  she  now  picked  up 
and  examined.  A  large  opal  heart,  encircled  with 
tiny  rubies  and  emeralds,  showed  through  misty 
green  a  centre  of  flame;  beside  it  was  a  fine  ame- 
thyst, the  diamonds  round  which  were  set  so  low 
that  their  white  light  was  flung  up  through  the 
wine  dark  stone  and  beneath  this  was  a  small  gold 
circlet  inset  with  emeralds,  emeralds  of  a  wicked 
green  that  lay  winking  and  blinking  in  the  clear 
light  of  the  sun. 

One  by  one  she  put  them  down  on  the  dressing- 
table,  and  when  the  last  had  been  laid  with  its  felj 
lows,  sat  back  to  consider  them.  They  were  six  in 
number,  six  ornaments  which  were  valuable  as  well 
as  beautiful.  If  their  beauty  had  obsessed  her  for  a 
few  minutes,  their  value  was  an  even  more  engross- 


22  TREASURE   TROVE 

ing  thought.  For  they  were  treasure  trove!  The 
burglar  in  leaving  them  behind  had  made  of  them 
a  free  gift.  They  were  hers.  She  had  found  them 
and  she  would  keep  them.  "  Finding  is  keeping," 
said  Mrs.  Smart,  with  a  confidence  in  the  phrase 
which  could  hardly  have  been  greater  if  she  had 
been  quoting  one  of  the  commandments.  Not  for 
an  instant  did  she  think  of  trying  to  find  the  right- 
ful owner.  The  jewels  had  changed  hands ;  and  as 
she  had  found  them,  they  belonged  to  her.  And 
yet  she  was  aware  that  her  late  husband  would 
have  thought  differently.  He  was  not  one  to  take 
advantage  of  another  man's  carelessness,  and  he 
would  have  given  up  the  find.  To  the  police,  how- 
ever, not  to  the  burglar!  But  Richard  had  always 
been  different  from  other  men  and  by  other  men 
his  wife  meant  the  men  of  her  own  class.  For  one 
thing  he  had  never  been  able  to  understand  that 
opportunities  were  for  those  who  could  grasp  them. 
Mrs.  Smart  had  lived  with  him  for  seventeen  years 
but  had  never  contrived  to  impress  him  with  her 
point  of  view.  He  thought  that  it  lacked  honesty, 
while  his,  she  was  certain,  lacked  expediency. 

"  The  woman  who  lost  these,"  thought  she, 
"  must  be  a  bit  sorry  for  herself,  but  she'll  have 
plenty  of  money,  sure  to,  and  can  buy  others."  She 
could  not  imagine  that  the  jewels  had  belonged  to 
any  but  rich  people,  people  to  whom  a  loss  of 
that  kind  was  no  great  matter  and  who  could  easily 
make  it  good.  In  spite  of  her  admiration  for  the 


TREASURE    TROVE  23 

glittering  objects  spread  out  before  her,  she  did  not 
suspect  that  gems  could  be  dear  to  the  possessors, 
so  dear  that  one  stone  can  by  no  means  take  the 
place  of  another.  Nor  if  she  had  would  she  have 
believed  it.  It  did  not  suit  her  to  be  sympathetic, 
to  dwell  upon  the  loser's  sufferings,  or  indeed  to 
credit  her  with  feeling  more  than  simple  annoy- 
ance, an  annoyance  at  which  she  could  afford  to 
smile.  The  jewels  had  once  no  doubt  belonged  to 
some  idle  lady  of  the  upper  classes,  and  Mrs.  Smart 
remembered,  though  somewhat  tardily,  that  she  did 
not  approve  of  the  upper  classes.  They  were  a 
good-for-nothing  and  immoral  set  of  people.  The 
thought  of  their  lavishness, — wasting  on  trifles  what 
would  keep  hard-working  people  for  a  week,  a 
month,  a  year ;  of  their  irreligion — '  desecrating  the 
British  Sabbath,'  and  of  the  looseness  of  their 
lives,  tightened  her  mental  grasp  of  the  trove.  She 
had  been  a  poor  woman  in  a  small  house  who 
kept  only  one  servant.  She  had  hardly  known  the 
meaning  of  luxury  and  she  had  worked  for  what 
she  had.  Now,  however,  she  saw  herself  against  a 
background  of  great  possessions,  of  innumerable 
precious  stones  all  of  which  might  be  turned  into 
money. 

As  for  the  money  thus  obtained,  she  would  not 
spend  it — no!  She  would  not  enlarge  her  expendi- 
ture by  so  much  as  a  farthing.  But  if  ever  a  crisis 
arose,  if  ever  money  were  needed  for  Eva  or  for 
Willy,  she — and  her  heart  danced  at  the  thought — 


24  TREASURE    TROVE 

she  would  be  able  to  provide  it.  She  would  have 
a  secret  hoard,  a  multitude  of  golden  sover- 
eigns, every  one  of  which  should  be  for  the  comfort 
and  advancement  of  her  children.  She  wondered 
what  the  jewellery  was  worth  and  what  it  would 
fetch  and  how  she  should  dispose  of  it,  conscious 
poor  soul  of  her  ignorance  in  such  matters.  She 
wanted  to  dream  and  to  plan,  but  being  a  practical 
person,  could  only  build  her  air-castles  on  solid 
mounds  of  fact,  could  only  gild  her  visions  with  the 
gold  of  reality. 

But  what  of  the  man  who  had  left  his  package 
on  her  mantel-shelf?  How  was  it  that  he  had  not 
returned  to  seek  it?  She  was  naturally  unaware 
that  in  his  hasty  flight  he  had  tripped,  straining  the 
arch  of  his  foot,  and  yet  she  suspected  that  some- 
thing of  the  sort  might  have  happened.  The  rockery 
at  the  end  of  their  garden  held  pitfalls  for  the 
unwary  and  the  night  had  been  dark.  Climbing  over 
into  the  road  the  man  had  dislodged  one  of  the 
big  clinkers  and  clinkers  are  heavy.  She  wondered 
if  he  had  hurt  himself  and  if  that  could  be  the  rea- 
son that  he  had  not  come  back.  But  the  longer 
she  sat  with  the  jewels  before  her,  the  more  certain 
did  she  feel  of  his  eventual  return.  No  one  could 
abandon  so  valuable  a  possession  without  making 
an  effort  to  retrieve  it.  He  would  come  back,  he 
who  had  already  crept  into  her  house  when  its 
inmates  were  asleep.  He  would  come  again,  would 
find  as  the  catch  of  the  scullery  window  had  been 


TREASURE    TROVE  25 

mended,  some  other  mode  of  entry,  and  she  must 
be  prepared  for  him.  She  was  not  a  nervous  per- 
son. Women  who  work  hard  and  conscientiously 
from  morning  till  night  very  seldom  are.  But 
there  is  no  denying  that  to  the  feminine  heart  a 
burglar  is  a  bugbear.  He  is  not  a  mere  man,  he 
is  an  incarnation  of  night  and  fear  and  all  the  bogies 
created  by  imagination,  a  half  ghostly,  wholly  ter- 
rible visitant.  But  Mrs.  Smart  was  a  woman  of 
courage,  and  though  her  spirit  trembled  at  the 
prospect  of  this  man's  return,  she  nerved  herself 
to  face  the  possibility. 

When  would  he  come?  She  and  Linda  were 
often  alone  together,  two  defenceless  women  in  a 
detached  house.  No  one  to  look  at  Mrs.  Smart, 
broad  and  big  and  steady  on  her  feet,  could  think 
of  her  as  defenceless;  it  was  not  even  her  own  view 
of  herself.  But  capable  as  she  was  in  everyday 
matters,  she  felt  herself  unequal  to  coping  with  a 
burglar,  although — and  the  recollection  of  this  was 
encouraging — he  had  certainly  fled  at  the  first  creak 
of  her  opening  door.  When  he  came  again,  how- 
ever, it  would  be  in  search  of  something  more  valu- 
able than  the  silver  in  the  old  sideboard,  something 
too  precious  to  be  abandoned  without  strenuous 
effort;  he  would  be  suspicious,  suspicious  and  per- 
haps angry.  Mrs.  Smart  sighed.  She  wished  that 
burglaries  were  committed  during  the  hours  of  day- 
light. It  was  so  much  easier  to  deal  with  people 
and  events  when  the  sun  was  shining  and  the  sweet 


26  TREASURE    TROVE 

air  blowing  through  the  morning  windows.  "  As 
a  thief  in  the  night,"  she  murmured.  She  felt  that 
she  would  be  facing  fearful  odds;  but  though 
afraid,  she  knew  she  would  face  anything  rather 
than  lose  her  treasure  trove.  Not  for  a  moment 
did  she  think  of  surrendering  it.  She  would  as 
soon  have  given  the  man  an  open  cheque.  What 
she  had  acquired  was  hers — if  she  could  keep  it; 
and  at  that  a  slow  smile  dawned  upon  her  face. 
The  man?  Yes,  after  all  he  was  only  a  man,  and 
she,  she  was  the  mother  of  such.  Women  spoil 
men,  flatter  them,  give  them  their  own  way,  and 
are  yet  contemptuous  of  them.  How  can  they  hon- 
our what,  in  helpless  and  naked  infancy,  they  have 
held  in  their  arms?  From  birth  to  manhood  and 
from  manhood  to  old  age,  the  woman  has  cared  for 
them,  borne  with  them  and  comforted  them,  cooked 
and  mended  and  advised,  surrounding  them  with 
her  providence,  smiling  at  their  foibles,  forgiving 
their  weaknesses.  Honour?  The  wise  old  cleric 
who  inserted  it  into  the  marriage  service  forgot 
that  a  shell  need  not  necessarily  contain  a  fish !  So, 
to  Mrs.  Smart,  the  burglar  stripped  of  his  cloak 
of  crime,  stood  revealed  as  but  a  man;  and  seeing 
him  thus,  her  courage  returned  to  her. 

She  must  hide  her  trove,  must  remember  that  the 
man  who  would  rob  her  of  it  was  no  ordinary  per- 
son with  clumsy  fingers  and  an  unimaginative  mind, 
but  someone  used  to  the  ways  of  the  human  creature 
with  its  treasure.  She  knew  women  who  hid  things 


TREASURE   TROVE  27 

under  their  mattresses,  knew  others  who  put  their 
faith  in  locked  drawers  and  boxes,  and  yet  others 
who  made  use  of  the  tops  of  wardrobes.  Men,  of 
course,  sent  their  valuables  to  the  bank,  or  shut 
them  into  despatch  boxes  and  safes,  or,  stranger 
still,  left  them  with  their  solicitors.  But  she  would 
do  none  of  these  things,  "  for,"  thought  she,  "  if  I 
know  of  these  hiding  places,  a  burglar  will  be  aware 
not  only  of  them,  but  of  many  more." 

Willy,  the  day  after  the  burglary,  had  spent  his 
savings  on  a  large  and  heavy  safe,  and  now  every 
evening  the  silver,  to  the  last  spoon,  was  brought 
up  to  his  bedroom  and  locked  away.  It  was  almost 
a  function.  Mrs.  Smart  carried  the  plate  basket, 
Linda  her  tray  laden  with  softly  gleaming  objects, 
and  the  young  fellow,  the  dignity  of  the  house- 
holder in  his  manner,  received  and  locked  every- 
thing away.  But  it  was  the  mother  who  kept  the 
keys,  just  as  it  was  she  who  was  the  real  house- 
holder; and  it  was  she  who  stole  into  the  boy's 
room  every  morning  to  get  out  what  was  needed. 
She  did  not  believe  in  safes.  They  shewed  where 
the  treasure  lay,  and  were  in  themselves  a  tempta- 
tion, and  she  was  at  least  certain  that  wheresoever 
she  might  place  her  valuables,  it  would  not  be  in 
Willy's  new  dark-green  toy. 

She  turned  in  her  chair  and  looked  about  the  bed- 
chamber, considering  its  resources  and  anxious  to 
be  very  wise,  wiser  than  the  burglar.  It  was  a 
room  akin  to  others  in  the  vicinity,  a  solidly  fur- 


28  TREASURE    TROVE 

nished  uncomfortable  shelter,  in  which  a  woman 
might  clothe  and  unclothe  herself,  might  rise  up  in 
the  morning  and  lie  down  at  night,  in  which  she 
might  sleep — but  could  not  live.  In  the  centre,  its 
head  against  the  wall,  stood  a  fourposter  which 
was  trimmed  with  chill  white  dimity.  The  one 
window  was  heavily  curtained,  and  for  further  pro- 
tection a  walnut  wood  dressing-table  stood  before 
it  like  a  barricade.  Facing  this  on  the  other  side 
of  the  bed  was  a  wardrobe  of  the  Chippendale  pe- 
riod, while  a  washstand  stood  on  one  side  of  the 
grey  stone  mantel-shelf  and  a  chest  of  drawers  on 
the  other.  The  grate  was  old-fashioned.  Never  in 
the  coldest  weather  did  Mrs.  Smart  treat  herself  to 
a  fire  in  it,  and  as  a  consequence,  while  the  fire- 
places in  dining-  and  drawing-rooms  and  study  were 
modern,  while  the  kitchener  was  spoken  of  respect- 
fully by  every  matron  who  had  been  privileged  to 
inspect  it,  the  grates  in  the  bedroom  story  of  the 
house  were  of  an  ancient  and  unpretentious  kind. 
Mrs.  Smart  glanced  at  the  well-blackened  bars.  In 
the  chimney,  as  she  happened  to  know,  were  one  or 
two  jutting  bricks;  how  if  she  were  to  conceal  the 
packet  upon  one  of  these,  under  a  generous  layer 
of  soot?  But  no.  For  years  her  chimney  had  been 
clean  of  soot,  and  its  sudden  appearance  on  one  of 
the  tiny  ledges  would  only  engender  suspicion.  It 
was  evident  that  she  could  not  make  use  of  the 
chimney. 

Before  this  she  had  often  kept  trifles  at  the  back 


TREASURE    TROVE  29 

of  her  brush  and  comb  drawer,  slipping  them  be- 
hind the  newspaper  that  lined  it,  and  this  hidey- 
hole  came  in  for  consideration.  But  it  was  prob- 
able that  other  women  did  the  same,  and  in  the  end 
she  shut  the  drawer  to  with  sudden  sharpness.  She 
had  thought  of  a  plan. 

On  her  mantel-shelf  was  the  usual  clock  flanked 
by  two  green  vases  of  cheap  majolica.  Beyond 
and  sufficiently  similar  to  please  their  owner's  type 
of  mind  lay  two  boxes,  one  containing  Mrs.  Smart's 
few  and  valueless  trinkets,  and  the  other  two  bun- 
dles of  letters.  The  good  woman's  attention  had 
fixed  itself  upon  the  second  of  these  boxes.  A 
matchwood  copy  of  a  Swiss  chalet,  she  had  used  its 
dusty  prettiness  to  hold  the  few  epistles  she  had 
cared  to  keep,  letters  from  her  children,  and  some 
written  to  her  before  they  were  born,  before  she 
was  ever  married;  letters  the  ink  of  which  was  a 
little  faded,  like  the  love  it  voiced,  the  love  which 
had  been  so  young  and  fierce  and  careless  of  ob- 
stacles, that  it  had  made  a  man  of  good  family 
marry  a  farmer's  daughter  and  settle  for  life  in 
Eastham ! 

She  took  down  the  box  and  lifted  out  its  con- 
tents, two  bundles  tied  across  with  string.  One  of 
these  she  laid  aside.  Practical  as  she  was,  the  sight 
of  them  brought  back  the  atmosphere  of  long  ago, 
of  honeysuckle  and  wild  roses,  with  the  vision  of  a 
couple  strolling  through  shaded  lanes,  one  never  to 
be  forgotten  summer.  Her  husband's  letters  were 


30  TREASURE   TROVE 

sacred,  but  no  such  sentiment  hovered  over  Eva 
and  Willy's.  They  lay  in  a  large,  somewhat  soiled 
envelope,  across  which  in  her  pointed  old-fashioned 
hand  she  had  written :  "  Letters  from  the  children." 
This  she  deliberately  emptied,  and  going  to  her 
store  of  writing  and  packing  materials,  got  out 
some  unbleached  cotton  wool.  She  did  not  enjoy 
returning  the  gems  to  the  darkness  out  of  which 
they  had  sprung,  and  her  fingers  moved  reluctantly 
as  she  folded  first  one  piece  and  then  another  in 
the  brown  refuse.  When  they  had  been  made  into 
a  flat  parcel,  she  slipped  them  into  the  old  envelope 
and  tied  it  across  with  the  piece  of  string  which 
had  been  used  before.  To  all  outward  seeming  it 
was  the  same  bundle  of  letters  which  she  had  taken 
out  of  the  box,  and  she  smiled  hopefully  over  its 
innocent  appearance.  Who  would  suspect  it  of 
being  anything  but  letters  ?  She  put  it  back  into  the 
Swiss  chalet — a  present  from  the  children  upon  one 
of  her  birthdays — and  it  filled  the  same  space  as 
before.  It  had  lain  in  the  box  for  so  many  years 
that  it  had  made  a  square  mark  upon  the  lining  of 
red  velvet,  and  it  now  once  more  exactly  fitted  onto 
the  piece  of  pressed  pile.  The  wood  of  the  chalet 
was  warped  and  the  roof  would  not  quite  close. 
Mrs.  Smart  put  the  packet  of  her  husband's  letters 
in  above  the  other  envelope,  and  shutting  down  the 
lid  stood  it  back  in  its  place.  Who  would  think 
that  this  half-open  flimsy  box  left  casually  on  the 
grey  mantel-shelf  contained  precious  stones?  Not 


TREASURE    TROVE  31 

Linda  when  she  came  to  dust,  not — Mrs.   Smart 
hoped — the  burglar,  if  he  were  to  return. 

Her  children's  letters,  early  ones  in  the  round- 
hand  of  the  beginner,  stiff  schoolboy  epistles  dealing 
with  stamps  and  cakes  and  coin,  and  later,  more 
mature  effusions,  lay  in  an  untidy  pile  on  the  dress- 
ing-table. She  took  down  the  other  box  and  lifted 
out  its  little  tray.  Beneath  were  her  string  of  onyx 
beads  and  some  odds  and  ends  of  treasured  rub- 
bish, a  broken  buckle,  a  pair  of  links,  and  some  old- 
fashioned  studs.  These  things  she  conveyed  to  the 
back  of  her  brush  and  comb  drawer ;  and  then,  gath- 
ering up  the  letters,  she  laid  them  in  the  well  of 
the  trinket-case.  They  had  been  pressed  together 
for  so  long  that  they  took  up  little  room ;  and  with  a 
feeling  of  satisfaction  and  relief,  Mrs.  Smart  pres- 
ently restored  the  box  to  its  place.  All  looked  as 
usual.  For  the  last  ten  years  the  clock,  the  two 
jars  and  the  boxes  had  stood  in  their  present  posi- 
tions, and  they  had  come  to  have  an  air  of  perma- 
nence, of  having  grown  in  their  places,  and  of  being 
very  humble.  It  could  not  be  that  any  one  of  them 
concealed  a  secret  of  importance,  a  secret  to  which 
the  others  were  accessory.  They  were  so  cheap,  so 
commonplace,  so  lacking  in  mystery.  Even  Mrs. 
Smart  as  she  drew  back  and  surveyed  the  work  of 
her  hands  felt  for  a  moment  as  if  the  experiences 
of  the  afternoon  had  been  unreal,  a  dream  of  riches 
which  must  vanish  if  she  sought  to  establish  it. 


CHAPTER   III 

Whether  at  Naishapur  or  Babylon, 
Whether  the  cup  with  sweet  or  bitter  run, 
The  Wine  of  Life  keeps  oozing  drop  by   drop, 
The  Leaves  of  Life  keep  falling  one  by  one. 

OMAR  KHAYYAM. 

A  BELL  rang  in  the  silent  house  and  Mrs.  Smart, 
who  had  just  cast  a  longing  eye  towards  that  side 
of  the  bed  on  which  she  was  wont  to  take  her  after- 
noon nap,  sighed  impatiently.  Her  ears  told  her 
that  it  was  the  front-doorbell,  and  she  knew  she 
should  have  been  ready  for  callers.  She  began  has- 
tily to  unbutton  her  morning  dress.  The  women 
who  came  to  see  her  were  seldom  congenial,  but  she 
was  comfortably  unaware  of  it.  They  represented 
houses,  houses  to  which  Eva  and  Willy  might  be 
invited ;  therefore  she  made  them  welcome  and  sent 
her  daughter  to  return  their  calls.  They  were 
women  made  after  the  ephemeral  fashion  of  to-day, 
she  after  that  of  yesterday  and  to-morrow,  and  as 
a  consequence  they  were  vaguely  pleased  to  see  Eva 
in  her  mother's  stead.  Not,  however,  that  Mrs. 
Smart  was  without  her  own  kind  of  social  relaxa- 
tion. She  had  certain  friends,  cronies  who  dropped 
in  occasionally  for  a  gossip  and  whose  talk  was 
strictly  human  and  natural.  Every  now  and  then, 
when  the  preserves  were  all  made,  the  house  from 

32 


TREASURE    TROVE  33 

loft  to  scullery  a  model  of  cleanliness,  and  she  had 
come  to  a  breathing-space,  she  would  return  their 
visits,  thoroughly  enjoying  the  shrewd  feminine 
talk  of  servants  and  children,  neighbours  and  house- 
keeping, and  coming  back  refreshed  and  full  of 
news. 

The  caller  presently  resolved  herself  into  a  lazy 
errand  boy,  who,  being  new,  had  thought  he  might 
bring  his  parcels  to  the  front  door,  a  mistake  which 
Linda,  with  awe-inspiring  dignity,  had  pointed  out. 
Nothing  abashed,  he  went  whistling  on  his  way,  but 
Mrs.  Smart,  though  relieved  to  hear  the  clash  of 
the  latch  as  the  gate  swung  to  behind  him,  continued 
her  simple  toilet.  After  all  it  was  nearly  time  for 
tea,  quite  time  for  her  to  change  into  her  brown 
stuff  dress,  to  smooth  her  already  smooth  hair,  and 
fasten  round  her  neck  and  in  at  the  centre  button 
of  her  bodice  the  long  gold  watch  chain  that  she 
habitually  wore.  Mrs.  Smart's  gowns  were  few  and 
inexpensive.  If  the  material  were  good  and  Eva 
did  not  object,  she  bought  what  the  shop  girls  rec- 
ommended. And  Eva,  though  she  knew  so  much 
better  than  her  mother,  was  a  gentle  tyrant.  Unless 
her  sense  of  colour — that  of  the  average  person — 
were  outraged,  her  parent  might  buy  what  she  liked 
and  wear  it  when  she  chose. 

Mrs.  Smart's  tea  of  toast  and  dripping  was  to 
her  liking,  so  much  so  that  she  lingered  over  it, 
thinking  of  her  find  and  all  that  it  might  mean  to 
Eva  and  Willy.  She  did  not  think  that  she  would 


34  TREASURE   TROVE 

speak  of  it  to  them.  They  were  still  the  children, 
and  she  had  never  yet  discussed  her  monetary  affairs 
with  them.  They  did  not  know  the  amount  of  her 
yearly  income,  how  much  of  it  she  spent,  or  what 
she  did  with  her  savings.  She  might  have  had 
thousands  lying  idle  at  the  bank,  or  she  might  have 
overdrawn  her  account.  They  knew  nothing,  and 
she  preferred  to  keep  them  ignorant.  For  the  mo- 
ment she  could  not  see  how  she  was  going  to  dis- 
pose of  the  jewels,  but  she  felt  no  real  anxiety  on 
that  score.  It  was  enough  that  she  had  them. 

As  she  dawdled  over  her  second  cup  of  tea,  her 
thoughts  went  straying  back  into  the  past.  The 
buoyancy  of  her  disposition  led  her  to  remember  the 
successes  rather  than  the  failures  of  her  life,  and 
she  thought  of  herself  as  having  always  been  happy, 
almost  always  lucky.  Her  earliest  memories  were 
of  a  house  in  a  terrace,  a  town  house;  of  morning 
walks  with  her  mother,  and  evening  romps  with  her 
father.  While  hardly  more  than  a  baby,  however, 
the  London  home  had  been  broken  up  and  her 
parents  had  taken  a  small  farm  in  the  country.  Her 
memories  of  that  period  were  dim,  and  she  paused 
to  wonder  whether  both  her  parents  had  come  down 
to  the  farm,  or  whether  it  had  been  then  that  her 
father  had  gone  abroad.  She  supposed  that  the 
London  business,  whatever  it  was,  had  proved  un- 
equal to  their  support  and  that  he  had  gone  to  look 
for  other  more  paying  employment ;  but  she  could 
not  remember  when  he  had  gone  or  for  how  long  he 


TREASURE    TROVE  35 

had  been  absent.  Her  first  years  in  the  country 
had  absorbed  her  attention  to  such  an  extent  that 
the  brooding  presences  which  protected  her  tiny  life 
had  been  almost  forgotten.  Whether  he  had  gone 
then  or  later,  however,  there  had  certainly  been  a 
time  when  he  was  absent  and  when  the  management 
of  the  farm  had  devolved  upon  her  mother.  It 
could  not  have  devolved  upon  more  capable  shoul- 
ders. Mrs.  Lovell's  chickens,  eggs,  milk  and  butter 
were  excellent,  and  her  customers  could  depend  upon 
her.  She  was  before  the  time  of  chicken  farms  and 
model  dairies,  but  having  a  Dutch  ideal  of  cleanli- 
ness, and  some  commonsense,  she  managed,  as  the 
pioneer  so  often  does,  to  make  her  venture  pay.  Mrs. 
Smart  could  recall  the  taste  of  the  home-cured  hams 
and  pickled  pork,  of  the  home-grown  vegetables  and 
the  wholemeal  bread.  She  had  been  a  healthy, 
merry  child,  tramping  her  mile  to  school  whatever 
the  weather  or  the  time  of  year,  and  running  back 
famished.  How  good  had  been  the  smell  rising 
from  the  big  pot  over  the  fire,  the  pot  in  which  her 
mother  always  put  the  stew  for  the  evening  meal. 
The  seasoning  had  been  garden  herbs  and  hunger 
and  surprise,  for  the  stew  was  never  the  same. 
Sometimes  it  contained  dumplings,  dumplings 
soaked  through  and  through  with  rich  gravy ;  some- 
times there  were  tender  young  carrots  and  a  rabbit 
which  Mrs.  Lovell  had  snared,  and  on  red-letter 
days  there  was  chicken,  elderly  but  none  the  less 
chicken.  Mrs.  Smart  saw  herself  again,  a  rosy, 


36  TREASURE   TROVE 

wind-blown  little  girl,  hurrying  across  the  kitchen 
to  the  dresser.  On  it,  always  in  its  own  place,  stood 
a  yellow  bowl  banded  with  blue,  her  own  bowl ;  and 
into  it  her  mother  would  ladle  some  of  the  fragrant 
stew.  She  would  give  the  child  a  slice  of  bread  and 
a  spoon  and  send  her  to  her  stool  by  the  fire,  and 
for  a  long  time  there  would  be  silence  and  enjoy- 
ment, a  tired  little  body  taking  in  sustenance  pre- 
paratory to  the  night-long  sleep,  and  a  woman  glad- 
dening her  eyes  with  the  sight  of  a  hunger  which 
she  could  satisfy. 

One  never  to  be  forgotten  day  the  husband  and 
father  had  come  back.  The  child  had  found  him 
when  she  ran  in  on  her  return  from  school,  a  quiet 
man  in  a  blue  serge  suit.  She  had  been  almost 
deliriously  glad  to  see  him,  it  was  so  great  an  event 
and  he  had  been  so  charming  a  playmate.  She  had 
not  forgotten  him  in  the  least.  But  to  her  disap- 
pointment he  seemed  to  have  grown  too  old  for 
romping.  Instead  he  would  sit  by  the  fire  watching 
his  wife  as  she  moved  about,  and  seemingly  content 
that  she  should  continue  to  manage  the  farm.  His 
little  daughter  had  been  puzzled.  Had  he  been  ill 
in  the  places  where  he  had  been,  and  was  he  come 
home  to  get  well  ?  But  he  assured  her  that  this  was 
not  so.  Before  very  long,  however,  he  had  fallen 
ill  in  good  earnest;  and  in  a  short  time — in  a  mo- 
ment as  it  had  seemed  to  her — he  was  dead.  Mrs. 
Smart  could  remember  her  mother  leading  her  into 
the  familiar  bedroom  that  she  might  say  good-bye 


TREASURE    TROVE  37 

to  him.  She  had  wept  and  wept,  but  her  mother  had 
stood  there  with  a  grim  look  upon  her  face 
and  never  a  tear.  The  child  had  felt  as  if  they  two 
were  talking,  the  dead  man  through  his  closed  lips, 
the  live  woman  wordlessly;  and  as  if  she  and  her 
simple  grief  were  forgotten.  She  did  not  remem- 
ber her  father's  face,  the  weak  face  with  its  look  of 
unavailing  regret,  but  she  could  still  hear  her 
mother's  "  Poor  soul !  "  as  she  had  turned  away,  her 
hand  still  close  about  the  little  hand  of  her  child. 

For  several  years  after  her  father's  death  the  still 
pool  of  their  lives  had  been  untroubled  by  any  event 
of  moment.  The  farm  had  prospered,  the  little  girl 
had  passed  from  one  class  to  another,  until  the  last 
day  of  school  life  had  dawned  and  closed.  The 
time  that  followed  was  full  of  the  sweet  triumphs  of 
youth.  She  had  been  good-looking,  with  soft  eyes 
and  an  abundance  of  dark  hair,  and  when  the  lads 
smiled  at  her  she  had  felt  pleased  and  had  smiled 
back  again.  But  her  smiles  had  meant  nothing  until 
Richard  Smart  came  to  convalesce  at  the  farm  after 
an  illness,  to  loiter  by  the  gravelled  shallows  of  the 
stream  that  twinkled  through  their  fields,  and  to 
fall  in  love  with  his  landlady's  daughter.  At  that 
time  she  was  in  her  twentieth  year,  innocent  and 
love  ripe,  a  peach  on  a  southern  wall,  and  what 
more  natural  than  that  the  man  should  stretch  out 
a  desirous  hand.  Mrs.  Lovell  with  her  grim  accept- 
ance of  all  that  time  brought  to  her  door,  had  looked 
on  but  had  not  interfered.  Minty  must  marry,  and 


38  TREASURE   TROVE 

if  this  man  rather  than  another,  so  be  it ;  but  it  was 
a  pity,  oh  yes,  it  was  a  pity. 

For  Richard  was  the  sixth  and  youngest  son  of 
Sir  Jocelyn  Smart,  a  county  magnate,  and  Mrs. 
Lovell  had  her  own  reasons  for  deprecating  alliances 
between  gentle  and  simple.  Not  that  she  raised 
objections ;  she  left  that  to  the  young  man's  family, 
and  they  quite  fulfilled  her  expectations.  Sir  Joce- 
lyn was  an  old-fashioned  parent,  and  he  proved  it, 
as  one  of  his  sons  said,  by  "  kicking  up  a  devil  of  a 
rumpus  " ;  while  the  mother,  who  could  not  bear  to 
see  her  youngest-born  slipping  out  of  an  already 
lonely  life,  had  wept  and  implored.  But  Dick  was 
in  love  and,  for  once  in  his  life,  knew  what  he 
wanted. 

How  swiftly  their  marriage  had  followed  upon 
his  declaration  of  love !  The  wild  roses  of  the  lanes 
in  which  they  wandered  had  hardly  had  time  to  shed 
their  petals  before  she  was  choosing  furniture  for 
the  little  suburban  home,  the  home  in  which  she 
had  been  so  happy.  Her  husband  was  in  the  Labour 
Department  of  the  Board  of  Trade.  To  the  sur- 
prise of  those  who  knew  the  hard-riding,  hard-hit- 
ting, daredevil  Smarts,  he  had  enlivened  a  delicate 
boyhood  by  winning  a  variety  of  prizes  and  exhibi- 
tions. Another  father  would  have  been  as  proud 
of  him  as  Lady  Smart  was,  but  the  squire  damned 
him  for  a  bookworm  and  talked  of  "  men." 

The  lad's  schoolmasters  had  united  in  promising 
him  a  brilliant  future — he  who  after  his  schooldays 


TREASURE    TROVE  39 

was  never  to  taste  success — his  mother  had  hoped  to 
see  her  ugly  duckling  whiten  into  a  swan,  and  Minty 
had  begun  her  married  life  with  that  "  honour  "  for 
him  upon  which  the  church  insists.  But  Richard 
Smart  was  a  "  dreamer  with  no  dreams  to  dream  " ; 
he  had  very  little  initiative  and  only  nebulous  am- 
bitions. His  personality  was  gentle  and  charming, 
but  it  did  not  impress,  and  he  shrank  from  battle. 
Not  his  to  rush  into  the  arena,  push  his  way  past 
other  men  and  grasp  at  the  spoils  of  the  vanquished. 

Mrs.  Smart  had  been  disappointed  in  him,  but 
after  some  years  of  failing  hope,  had  readjusted  her 
expectations.  His  was  not  the  commercial  brain 
and  he  would  never  make  a  fortune.  Very  well, 
then,  she  would  not  look  for  worldly  success.  Her 
husband  was  clever,  a  great  linguist,  and  she  could 
be  proud  of  having  married  so  gifted  a  man.  It  was 
by  this  adaptability  that  she  contrived  content,  and 
kept  her  smile  sincere.  Looking  back,  however,  she 
forgot  that  she  had  ever  known  a  pang  of  disillu- 
sion. Richard  had  been  unfailingly  good  to  her, 
and  she  remembered  only  the  golden  hours.  The 
neighbourhood  of  Eastham  in  those  days  consisted 
chiefly  of  wood  and  heath  and  common,  and  in 
summer  evenings  they  had  gone  for  long  rambles 
over  the  downs  or,  when  the  children  were  coming, 
had  sat  on  a  fallen  tree  in  the  copse  nearest  their 
little  home,  listening  to  the  nightingales.  It  was  of 
such  moments  that  she  thought. 

For  Richard  had  been  only  too  kind,  too  cour- 


40  TREASURE   TROVE 

teous.  The  men  Minty  had  hitherto  met  had  had 
workaday  wives  and  workaday  manners,  and  she 
could  not  bring  herself  to  take  his  strange  and 
charming  ways  as  a  matter  of  course.  When  he 
held  the  door  open  for  her,  she  hurried  past  with 
her  head  down,  ashamed  to  keep  a  tired  man  on  his 
feet  when  she  could  so  well  have  turned  the  handle 
for  herself.  When  she  realised  that  he  would  not 
sit  down  if  she  were  standing,  it  made  her  feel  un- 
comfortable and  as  if  she  must  remain  glued  to  her 
chair.  In  the  end,  although  she  took  a  secret  pride 
in  knowing  him  so  different  from  his  fellows,  she 
had  remonstrated.  "  Oh  don't,''  she  had  said,  see- 
ing him  about  to  rise  and  wait  on  her,  "  men  don't 
do  that  for  their  wives." 

The  couple,  quiet,  inoffensive,  and  in  the  blossom- 
ing time  of  their  youth,  had  been  called  upon  by 
the  people  in  the  adjacent  houses,  simple  folk  who 
made  the  most  of  their  tiny  incomes,  and  thought 
themselves  daringly  unconventional  if  they  ven- 
tured to  wheel  out  their  own  babies,  instead  of  send- 
ing them  with  the  one  servant,  and  staying  at  home 
to  do  the  housework.  Minty  took  to  the  suburban 
life,  wore  her  best  clothes  on  Sunday,  did  her  own 
marketing,  and  otherwise  demeaned  herself  as  to 
the  manner  born,  but  Richard  stumbled  and  made 
mistakes.  He  could  not  understand  that  you  went 
to  church  in  order  to  shew  that  you  had  good  clothes. 
He  wanted  to  go  in  a  lounge  suit,  as  he  and  his 
brothers  would  have  done  at  the  Priory.  But  when 


TREASURE    TROVE  41 

he  appeared  in  it,  his  wife  had  gazed  at  him  in 
horror,  a  horror  by  no  means  simulated.  "  You 
must  wear  a  frock  coat  and  a  tall  hat  and  light  kid 
gloves,"  she  had  said,  and  from  thenceforward  he 
had  followed  suburban  usage. 

He  meant  well.  He  was  a  working  bee  and  he 
realised  that  the  idle  glory  of  the  drones  was  not 
for  him,  that  he  must  live  as  did  the  other  workers. 
Just  at  first,  however,  the  tiny  differences  were  dif- 
ficult to  bear  in  mind,  difficult  because,  as  it  seemed 
to  him,  they  were  so  unimportant. 

All  his  grown-up  life  he  had  dressed  for  dinner 
and  he  saw  no  harm  in  the  habit,  but  his  wife  did. 
"  When  we  are  alone?  "  she  had  asked,  seeking  in 
vain  to  make  him  see  that  he  owed  a  greater  cour- 
tesy to  the  stranger  who  might  dine  with  them  than 
to  herself. 

He  hardly  understood  what  she  was  trying  to  say, 
and  in  his  turn  explained  that  it  would  be  as  uncom- 
fortable to  spend  the  evening  in  fusty  workaday 
clothes  as  to  go  without  his  morning  tub.  Mrs. 
Smart  had  smiled  and  given  way.  He  might  change 
but  he  must  not  dress.  "  Wear  an  old  suit.  Then 
you  can  work  in  the  garden,  and  if  any  of  the  neigh- 
bours drop  in  for  a  pipe,  they  won't  think  you  are 
putting  on  side." 

So  Richard  Smart  carefully  relearnt  his  manners. 
The  men  he  met  in  Eastham  or  going  up  to  business 
were  good  fellows  enough.  They  did  not  look  at 
things  quite  as  he  did,  but  at  first  he  had  found  that 


42  TREASURE   TROVE 

rather  amusing.  It  was  only  as  he  grew  older  that 
he  began  to  miss  the  atmosphere  in  which  he  had 
been  reared.  He  would  have  liked  his  boys  to  have 
had  a  better  education  than  Eastham  could  give 
them,  he  would  have  liked  them  to  have  met  their 
young  cousins  and  gone  to  Rugby — the  family 
school — and  he  would  have  liked  his  pretty  Eva  to 
have  made  her  debut  under  his  mother's  wing.  But 
these  things  could  not  be.  He  had  chosen  his  place 
and  his  lot  and  he  must  make  the  best  of  them. 

Not  that  he  regretted  his  choice.  Minty — her 
name  was  Araminta — cheerful,  thrifty,  and  self- 
confident,  was  the  right  wife  for  a  man  of  his  nerv- 
ous temperament ;  and  though  he  never  told  her  all 
that  was  in  his  mind,  at  least  he  made  her  happy. 
In  the  class  to  which  by  birth  he  belonged,  only 
courage  and  good  manners  were  expected  from 
women.  They  had  servants  to  wait  on  them,  hus- 
bands and  fathers  to  protect  them,  they  were  cher- 
ished, guarded  and  indulged.  Richard  not  having 
learnt  to  differentiate,  supposed  his  wife  would  prove 
as  helpless  as  his  sisters;  and  Mrs.  Smart,  capable, 
healthy,  and  a  manager,  was  astonished  to  find  her- 
self treated  like  a  rare  exotic.  It  took  her  years  to 
make  him  realise  that  she  knew  the  value  of  money 
as  well  if  not  better  than  he  did,  that  housework 
was  not  distasteful  to  her,  and  that  she  really  en- 
joyed the  society  of  her  children.  Till  the  day  of 
his  death  her  ways  seemed  to  him  beautifully  strange 
and  unusual,  and  that  in  spite  of  an  occasional  dif- 


TREASURE    TROVE  43 

ference  of  opinion.  But  their  quarrels,  quarrels 
due  to  her  impatience  and  his  sensitiveness,  were 
of  no  importance  and  sprang  up  only  to  wither 
away. 

For  the  first  few  years  of  their  married  life  they 
had  felt  the  pinch  of  poverty,  a  pinch  which  he  bore 
with  equanimity,  but  for  which  he  was  always  men- 
tally apologising  to  her.  His  salary  was  small,  sal- 
aries sometimes  are  in  the  Home  Civil,  and  Richard 
Smart  thought  more  of  doing  his  work  conscien- 
tiously than  of  trying  to  obtain  a  living  wage.  Some 
day  he  would  be  recompensed  for  his  long  and 
faithful  service,  but  he  could  not  ask.  He  would 
rather  have  gone  without.  However,  the  big  rise 
eventually  came,  lifting  the  tiny  income  to  four 
hundred  a  year,  and  Minty's  pride  in  her  husband 
was  renewed.  Nor  had  destiny  finished  with  them. 
A  week  later  old  Sir  Jocelyn  died,  and  his  death 
brought  a  further  amelioration  of  circumstances. 

Mrs.  Smart  had  been  dressing  for  church  and  from 
her  bedroom  window  had  seen  a  landau  and  pair 
drive  up  to  the  gate.  The  road  had  been  full  of 
their  neighbours,  of  people  who  did  not  know  that 
Richard  was  the  son  of  a  baronet,  but  who  could  not 
help  observing  this  disturbance  of  the  Sunday  peace. 
Mrs.  Smart,  deeply  gratified,  but  a  little  fluttered, 
had  hurried  down.  Were  her  husband's  people 
going  to  recognise  her  at  last?  She  had  been  ten 
years  married,  and  during  all  that  time  no  word  had 
come  from  Sir  Jocelyn  or  his  wife,  or  indeed  from 


44  TREASURE   TROVE 

any  of  the  family  except  William,  the  brother  next 
in  age  to  her  husband.  She  ran  into  the  dining- 
room  where  her  children — three  in  those  days — were 
awaiting  her,  and  heard  that  "  Daddy  had  gone  to 
the  door." 

It  was  like  him  to  have  made  no  more  of  the 
matter  than  that.  She  herself  would  have  observed 
a  due  formality,  but  then  she  had  not  all  her  life 
been  used  to  men  servants  and  maid  servants,  car- 
riages and  horses.  For  once  she  saw  her  husband, 
not  as  the  dear  domestic  friend,  but  as  a  Smart  of 
Smarden  Priory,  and  seeing  him  thus,  was  amazed 
at  her  temerity  in  having  married  him. 

Richard  on  opening  the  door  had  recognised  the 
man.  "  Why  Forbes,"  he  had  said  kindly,  "  and 
so  you  are  still  there.  How  is  my  mother  ?  " 

Forbes,  grimly  important,  had  told  him  that  her 
ladyship  was  in  the  carriage ;  that  she  had  come  for 
him,  Sir  Jocelyn  being  very  ill. 

To  Mrs.  Smart's  surprise,  her  husband  on  the 
receipt  of  this  information  had  seemed  to  forget 
everything  but  his  mother  and  the  past.  Snatching 
up  a  cap  he  had  run  out  to  the  carriage. 

"  My  poor  mother — that  you  should  have  come 
yourself,"  he  had  cried. 

"  He  has  only  the  one  wish  now,"  his  mother  had 
said  pathetically.  "  He  wants  to  see  you  and  make 
amends,"  and  Richard  had  straightway  stepped  into 
the  carriage  and  driven  away  with  her. 

Mrs.  Smart  never  knew  in  detail  the  events  of 


TREASURE   TROVE  45 

that  day,  was  never  told  how  father  and  son  had 
met. 

"  Well,  Dick,"  the  old  man  had  said,  "  lying  here 
I've  thought  it  over  and  I  see  that  you  had  the 
right  to  choose.  I'm  death  on  misalliances,  always 
have  been,  but  I  treated  you  unfairly.  I  can't  say 
more  than  that." 

"  No  sir,"  and  the  hands  met,  the  one  rough 
with  outdoor  work,  the  hand  of  a  man  fond  of  man- 
ual labour,  and  the  other  white  and  fine  and  smooth 
— but  for  all  that,  hands  very  similar  in  shape. 

"Has  it  answered,  Dick?" 

"  In  some  ways.  My  wife's  the  one  woman  in 
the  world  for  me,  but  I'm  out  of  my  element.  The 
people  are  all  right,  but  they  aren't  the  people  I've 
been  used  to,  and  it's  the  same  with  the  life."  He 
glanced  round  the  large  airy  room  and  out  of  the 
open  window.  Smart  land  ran  from  the  big  Tudor 
house  to  the  distant  horizon,  a  fat  and  pleasant  piece 
of  the  broad  earth.  "  I  ought  not  to  have  been 
brought  up  here,"  he  added  simply. 

His  father  nodded.  "  That's  where  the  pull 
comes,  eh?  Well,  boy,  I've  left  you  a  share,  but 
the  property  is  mostly  entailed,  and  I  hadn't  much 
to  play  about  with.  Got  any  children  ?  " 

Richard  named  and  described  them.  "  Eva  and 
Jocelyn  are  like  their  mother,  but  Willy  is  a  Smart." 

"  A  Smart  ?  Pity.  Well,  stick  him  in  a  regi- 
ment and  send  him  out  into  the  world.  He  won't 
be  happy  in  your  suburb." 


46  TREASURE    TROVE 

"  I  wish  I  could  have  got  into  the  service,"  the 
other  said,  voicing  a  lifelong  regret. 

"  The  medicos  wouldn't  have  passed  you  for  it." 

"  No,  and  yet  I  should  have  made  a  good  soldier 
— routine  work  and  no  responsibility  and  an  out- 
door life." 

"  A  man's  life,"  murmured  the  old  man.  "  Ah, 
Dick,  after  all  you're  a  Smart.  Never  a  damned 
woman  among  'em,  all  boys,  Dick,  all  men." 

A  prejudiced  old  gentleman  this,  one  who  clung 
to  his  prejudices  and  would  take  them  with  him 
through  the  gates  of  death. 

Those  few  hundreds  a  year  which  Sir  Jocelyn  left 
him  raised  the  load  of  responsibility  from  his  son's 
breaking  back.  A  delicate  man,  Richard  had 
brooded  unhappily  over  the  future  of  his  wife  and 
children,  and  that  was  now  assured.  He  might  even 
have  said  good-bye  to  the  Labour  Department  of  the 
Board  of  Trade!  His  wife  had  suggested  it,  won- 
dering as  she  did  so  what  she  would  do  if  she  had 
him  at  home  all  day.  But  the  years  had  brought 
him  a  little  wisdom.  He  thought  of  his  room  in 
London  and  his  pleasant  work — the  writing  of  let- 
ters in  every  European  language,  the  reading  of  in- 
numerable foreign  newspapers,  in  order  to  extract 
from  them  all  that  related  to  the  affairs  of  his  de- 
partment, and  he  shook  his  head.  In  London  he 
occasionally  saw  other  men  who,  like  himself,  had 
slipped  off  the  ladder,  had  climbed  down  instead  of 
up,  men  who  talked  and  thought  as  he  did,  who 


TREASURE    TROVE  47 

went  to  the  old  shops  for  their  ties,  and  if  they 
could  have  afforded  it,  would  have  gone  to  the  old 
tailors  for  their  clothes.  He  was  happy  in  his  office, 
happier  than  he  could  ever  now  be  elsewhere,  and 
he  would  not  give  it  up. 

After  some  years  of  comparative  affluence,  dur- 
ing which  the  family  moved  out  of  its  side  street 
into  a  house  on  the  main  thoroughfare,  and  were 
called  upon  by  suburban  ladies  a  little  higher  in  the 
social  scale  than  those  whom  they  had  hitherto 
known,  Richard  Smart  died.  He  had  never  been 
strong,  and  once  pneumonia  had  him  in  its  grip 
there  was  little  hope.  Again  the  big  landau  and 
pair  drove  up  to  the  gate,  but  this  time  a  tired  old 
woman  who  had  buried  her  husband  and  several  of 
her  many  children,  crept  out  of  it.  Mrs.  Smart  met 
her  on  the  doorstep  and  as 

The   Colonel's   lady   and   Judy  O'Grady 
Are  sisters  under  the  skin — 

they  kissed  when  they  met. 

"Is  he ?"  asked  the  mother,  unable  to  put 

her  fear  into  words.  Pneumonia  can  do  its  work 
rapidly,  and  Richard  would  not  have  sent  for  her 
unless  he  had  been  near  the  end  of  the  journey. 

"  He  spoke  of  you  just  now.  He  asked  for  you," 
answered  the  other,  giving  out  of  her  maternal  heart 
what  comfort  she  could. 

So  with  those  whom  he  loved  about  him,  Richard 
Smart  had  closed  his  eyes  upon  a  puzzling  world. 


48  TREASURE   TROVE 

He  had  been  dealt  with  strangely  and  he  had  never 
understood.  It  is  possible  that  Nature  in  her  indif- 
ferent way  had  used  him  as  she  uses  so  many  of  us, 
for  the  good  of  the  race,  and  of  course  he  had  not 
understood. 

His  death  had  taught  the  woman  who  thought 
herself  so  lucky  the  meaning  of  sorrow.  "  Ah,  but 
in  time,"  she  had  said,  "  in  time  I  shall  forget." 
But  summer  faded  into  winter  and  came  again,  and 
the  empty  chair  remained  empty,  the  poor  heart 
cried  after  its  lost  companion. 

"  He  told  me  that  I  should  get  over  it,"  she  had 
said,  clinging  to  the  skirts  of  hope,  "  that  I  should 
get  used  to  being  without  him ;  but  I  don't,  I  miss 
him  more  every  day,  more  and  more  and  more." 

She  was  bewildered  by  the  insistency  of  her  grief. 
"  It  is  as  if  I  had  lost  a  part  of  myself — an  arm," 
she  said.  "  It  does  not  hurt  now,  but  it  is  still  lost 
and  I  can  never  have  it  back  again."  But  hers  was 
a  healthy  spirit  in  a  healthy  body,  too  healthy  for 
exaggerated  or  long  continued  sorrow.  Two  of  her 
children  yet  remained  to  her,  and  labouring  for 
them,  she  could  at  times  forget  her  loss.  Once 
more  as  they  grew  to  man  and  womanhood  she 
tasted  happiness,  the  happiness  of  one  who  waits  for 
she  knows  not  what,  and  while  waiting  fills  her  time 
with  work. 

The  children  were  satisfactory.  They  seemed  to 
have  been  cut  on  the  ordinary  pattern,  and  for  this 
she  had  the  sense  to  be  thankful.  To  be  common- 


TREASURE   TROVE  49 

place  among  the  commonplace  was  what,  though  she 
hardly  phrased  it  so,  she  wished  for  them.  Richard 
had  been  clever,  and  what  had  it  brought  him?  The 
joys  of  the  outcast,  not  of  the  outcast  among  out- 
casts, but  of  the  outcast  in  the  wilderness. 

Willy,  though  good  at  figures,  had  no  leanings 
towards  any  particular  occupation.  When  asked 
what  he  wanted  to  do  he  had  said  "  Something 
abroad,"  but  had  not  seemed  capable  of  elaborating 
this  idea.  His  mother  had  suggested  a  bank  in 
Hong  Kong,  but  he  did  not  think  he  would  like  to 
be  a  clerk  or  to  stay  in  one  place  for  very  long,  and 
after  mentioning  one  thing  after  another,  and  find- 
ing none  of  them  to  his  taste,  she  had  finally  lost 
patience  and  put  him  into  a  stockbroker's  office. 
Willy  had  accepted  his  fate  with  equanimity.  "  I 
shall  make  money,"  he  had  said,  "  and  then  I  shall 
be  able  to  do  as  I  like." 

"  If  you  only  knew  what  that  was  you  could  do 
it  now,"  his  practical  mother  had  rejoined. 

"  But  that's  just  it,  I  don't  know.  There  must 
be  something  I  should  like  to  do,  and  presently  per- 
haps it  will  come  to  me.  Of  course  I'd  like  to 
travel." 

Mrs.  Smart  had  shaken  her  head.  "  Too  expen- 
sive and  a  waste  of  time.  You've  got  to  work  for 
your  living,  and  the  sooner  you  begin  the  better." 

"  That  brings  us  back  to  where  we  were  before. 
I'll  try  and  make  money,  and  when  I've  made  it  I 
shall  be  able  to  do  as  I  like,"  and  he  had  smiled 


50  TREASURE   TROVE 

at  her,  a  quick,  bright  smile  that  reminded  her  of 
his  uncle,  Colonel  William  Smart.  Willy  with  his 
rippled  black  hair,  his  grey-black  flinty  eyes  and  his 
fine  physique  was  a  Smart,  but  he  resembled  his 
uncle  rather  than  his  father.  Mrs.  Smart,  who  ad- 
mired her  husband's  folk  and  thought  deprecatingly 
of  the  little  farm  at  Ashwater  and  the  sturdy  old 
woman  who  managed  it,  could  have  wished  that  Eva 
had  not  been  a  mere  younger  likeness  of  herself. 
Once  and  once  only  had  she  seen  the  Evangeline — 
her  husband's  mother — after  whom  the  child  had 
been  named ;  but  the  elegant  and  fragile  lady,  though 
broken  by  sorrow,  had  made  on  her  mind  an  indel- 
ible impression.  Her  pale  colours,  her  scarcely 
rounded  contours,  her  slender  grace,  had  seemed  ad- 
mirable to  the  woman  whom  life  had  used  and  pov- 
erty abused.  If  Eva  had  only  resembled  her  grand- 
mother! But  Eva  herself  was  content  to  be  like 
the  mother  whom  she  loved  with  sweet  and  girlish 
warmth,  to  be  dark-eyed  and  rosy-cheeked  and 
sonsie.  The  pale  aristocrat,  with  the  fine  snow- 
white  hair,  and  thin  long  features,  had  had  no 
charms  for  her.  If  she  ever  thought  of  her  it  was 
in  connection  with  that  saddest  day  her  young  life 
had  as  yet  experienced,  the  day  on  which  her 
father  had  died,  and  on  which  she  had  seen  Lady 
Smart  sitting  on  one  side  of  the  bed,  his  hand  in 
hers.  Like  that  fine  cold  unhappy  woman?  Eva 
could  not  see  her  beauty,  and  had  not  the  least  wish 
to  resemble  her.  "  No,  Mummie  dear,  I'd  rather  be 


TREASURE   TROVE  51 

like  you;  at  least  you  are  alive,  and  Grandmother 
Smart  did  not  look  as  if  she  were  or  had  ever  been." 

Twilight  had  fallen,  the  teapot  had  grown  cold 
and  Mrs.  Smart  returning  from  her  stroll  down 
"  the  long  street  of  memories "  found  that  it  was 
growing  late. 

She  pushed  back  her  chair  and  rose,  a  tremulous 
smile  on  the  corners  of  her  mouth.  "  Ah,  but  I 
have  been  a  lucky  woman,"  she  told  herself  as  the 
figures  of  her  parents,  her  husband  and  her  children 
flitted  across  her  mental  vision.  Ah,  yes,  the  dear 
ones,  those  whom  she  still  had  and  those  to  whom 
across  the  grave  she  stretched  hands  of  loving  mem- 
ory. She  was  one  of  those  whose  dead  cannot  know 
corruption,  for  they  only  sleep.  A  faithful  heart. 


CHAPTER   IV 

MEANWHILE  the  man  who  had  left  the  jewels  be- 
hind when  fear  sent  him  flying  out  of  The  Laurels 
was,  as  Mrs.  Smart  had  surmised,  very  much  an- 
noyed at  their  loss.  He  had  not  discovered  it  until 
he  reached  his  home,  one  of  the  small  old-fashioned 
houses  in  Camberwell  Grove ;  and  when  he  realised 
it,  he  had  been  too  angry  to  speak  about  it.  Tom 
Tharp  was  a  reporter,  a  pleasant  little  fellow  with 
limpid  blue  eyes  and  a  vivacious  manner.  He  had 
the  good  fortune  to  be  on  the  Times,  a  fact  which 
was  known  to  all  the  policemen  in  his  neighbour- 
hood, and  which  made  them  accept  the  irregularity 
of  his  hours  with  equanimity ;  while  as  to  the  black 
bag  without  which  he  never  left  his  home,  had  they 
not  seen  it  bulging  with  documents  of  an  innocent 
description?  Had  he  not  casually  opened  it  before 
them  to  find  a  theatre  pass  which  he  could  not  use  ? 
The  little  man  was  popular,  he  had  a  way  with  men, 
and  once,  when  he  had  been  in  sore  straits,  he  had 
found  that  women  too  would  dance  to  his  piping. 
He  had  since  married  the  heroine  of  that  adventure, 
the  woman  who  could  have  given  him  in  charge,  but 
who  had  not  done  so.  Knowing  him  for  what  he 
was,  accepting  it  as  a  fact  of  nature  and  leaving  it 
at  that,  she  had  become  the  only  possible  wife  for 
him. 

52 


TREASURE   TROVE  53 

What  was  he  ?  Gutter-snipe  to  begin  with,  Board 
school  child,  office  boy,  clerk,  reporter,  father  of  a 
family,  respectable  citizen!  More  too,  for  he  had 
the  long  hand  and  blunt  finger-tips  which  go  with 
dexterity  and  imagination. 

The  little  man  was  a  survival.  In  him  burnt  the 
spirit  of  high  adventure,  of  some  thievish  Norse 
viking  who,  when  the  restlessness  came  upon  him, 
must  set  the  nose  of  his  long-ship  towards  England 
and  come  after  the  goods  of  unoffending  Saxons.  A 
degenerate  descendant  of  these  rough  fighters,  Tom 
Tharp  used  craft  where  they  had  been  content  with 
strength,  but  he  had  the  same  greed  of  gain,  the 
same  moral  carelessness.  It  is  hardly  imaginable 
that  the  viking  when  he  sat  at  home  surrounded  by 
comforts  which  he  had  taken  with  the  strong  hand 
had  any  qualms  of  conscience;  and  Tharp,  living, 
unfortunately  for  him,  in  a  more  delicate  and  fin- 
icking age,  was  yet  as  happily  constituted. 

Like  the  Norse  freebooter,  he  could  endure  spells 
of  monotonous  labour.  For  weeks  he  would  return 
home  by  the  usual  train,  play  with  the  children, 
smoke  his  pipe,  and  go  early  to  bed,  but  the  under- 
current of  adventurous  desire  would  be  rising  all 
the  time.  His  wife  had  learnt  to  recognise  the 
symptoms,  the  on-coming  dreaminess,  the  irritation, 
the  disinclination  for  society.  At  last  the  plan,  what- 
ever it  was,  upon  which  his  brain  had  been  working, 
would  be  mature.  "  Don't  expect  me  home  early," 


54  TREASURE   TROVE 

he  would  say  one  morning  as  he  kissed  her  good- 
bye. "  There's  extra  work  on  at  the  office." 

Florence,  who  asked  no  questions,  had  accepted 
the  formula.  She  knew  that  when  he  returned  it 
would  be  with  the  black  bag  grown  comfortably 
heavy,  and  that  for  days  after  he  would  go  singing 
and  whistling  about  the  house.  "  Some  people," 
he  had  once  said  to  her,  "  can  look  down  at  the 
carpet  and  see  only  grey  threads,  and  yet  not  mind, 
but  I  want  pattern  and  colour.  I  was  made  that 
way." 

Florence  Tharp  had  been  lady's  maid  at  a  big 
house,  and  one  evening  she  had  found  Tom  hard 
at  work  on  a  safe  in  her  mistress'  bedchamber.  She 
had  stood,  boldly,  for  those  she  represented,  but  she 
had  not  raised  the  alarm.  He  must  not  take  so 
much  as  a  farthing's  worth,  but  he  might  go.  And 
he  had  had  sufficient  wit  to  appreciate  both  her  gen- 
erosity and  her  loyalty.  He  would  go,  but  he  would 
come  back,  for  he  wanted  to  see  her  again.  She 
was  a  fine-looking  girl,  fair,  stolid  and  slow,  and 
in  the  end  he  had,  as  she  expressed  it,  "  worried 
her  into  taking  him." 

They  were  oddly  congenial.  His  active  brain 
needed  just  the  home  atmosphere,  quiet  and  peace- 
ful, which  she  created,  while  she  found  his  foolish 
gaiety,  his  high  spirits  and  the  comforts  which  he 
provided,  very  pleasant.  Their  children,  two  boys, 
were  sharp  little  fellows  with  the  fair  beauty  of  the 
mother  and  the  clamorous  vivacity  of  their  other 


TREASURE    TROVE  55 

parent.  Tharp  was  extremely  proud  of  them.  He 
meant  to  give  them  a  good  commercial  education 
and  hoped  one  day  to  see  them  successful  as  finan- 
ciers. They  would  of  course  inherit  his  tendencies, 
feel  in  their  turn  the  sharp-edged  joy  that  was  his 
whenever  he  managed  to  outwit  a  fellow-man ;  and 
he  would  contrive  that  they  should  be  able  to  do  it 
on  a  larger  scale  than  had  ever  been  possible  for 
him.  The  little  chaps  trotting  every  morning  to 
their  kindergarten,  but  not  yet  old  enough  for  the 
Camberwell  Grammar  School  or  Dulwich  College, 
were  to  him  millionaires  in  embryo,  successful  pi- 
rates, Norse  freebooters  translated  into  modern  life. 
He  bought  biographies,  the  lives  of  monied  rascals, 
of  great  conquerors,  of  empire  builders;  and  when 
he  was  not  planning  a  burglary,  steeped  himself  in 
the  stories  of  their  stupendous  wickedness.  The 
world  acclaimed  them  great,  and  he  recognised  his 
far-off  kinship  with  them.  They  had  grasped  at 
gold  and  lands,  using  the  lives  of  men,  as  women 
use  thread  for  their  work ;  and  he,  in  his  small  way, 
was  putting  out  his  hand  and  grasping,  careless  of 
the  consequences. 

But  the  jewels,  the  jewels  that  he  had  left  behind! 
Tharp  habitually  used  a  bicycle,  and  when  paying  a 
night  visit  to  some  house  beyond  the  three-mile 
radius,  rode  out  and  back.  He  would  leave  it,  for 
the  time  being,  inside  a  walled  garden  abutting  on 
the  road,  or  behind  the  house  itself  in  some  con- 
venient shadow,  and  when  ready  would  return,  lift 


56  TREASURE   TROVE 

it  over  or  out  and  wheel  away.  On  the  night  that 
he  had  raided  The  Laurels  he  had  left  his  machine 
in  the  back  garden  of  a  neighbouring  house;  and 
having  hurt  his  foot  among  the  rockwork  as  he 
made  his  escape,  had  had  some  difficulty  in  regain- 
ing it.  He  was  not  easily  beaten  however,  and 
after  a  time  succeeded  in  getting  it  back  into  the 
road,  whence,  pedalling  with  one  foot,  he  had  made 
his  way  home.  But  he  had  been  really  hurt,  and 
was  confined  to  his  room  for  some  weeks,  during 
which  period  of  enforced  inaction  he  was  able  to 
spend  as  much  time  as  he  liked  reflecting  upon  his 
amazing  folly.  That  he  of  all  people  should  have 
done  this  thing!  He  was  vain  of  his  dexterity  and 
forethought,  of  the  care  with  which  he  laid  and 
executed  his  plans,  and  yet  it  was  he,  Tom  Tharp, 
who  had  taken  jewels  worth  several  thousand 
pounds  out  of  his  bag  and  put  them  on  a  strange 
mantel-shelf  while  he  set  about  filling  it  with  silver, 
mere  silver;  and  who  when  disturbed  had  hurried 
off  without  them.  For  some  days  after  the  event 
he  kept  silent  about  it,  but  in  the  end  he  made  a 
confidante  of  his  wife. 

"  To  think  I  should  have  been  such  a  gol-darned 
ass,"  he  said. 

Mrs.  Tharp  slowly  revolved  the  matter.  "  It  was 
wasteful,"  she  said  at  last,  "  I  could  have  done  with 
that  necklace  myself." 

"  I  wonder  what's  happened  to  it  ?  "  her  husband 
said  restlessly.  "  I've  looked  in  the  papers,  but 


TREASURE    TROVE  57 

there's  been  never  a  word.  I  thought  I  should  have 
seen  *  Sensational  Discovery !  The  biter  bit.  Burg- 
lar leaves  Lady  Dudley  Bodger's  jewels  in  the 
dining-room  of  another  house.'  But  no,  not  a  line. 
And  there'd  be  no  sense  in  their  lying  low  about  it, 
would  there  ?  " 

"They  might  think  you  would  go  back,"  sug- 
gested his  wife. 

"  So  I  shall  of  course,  but  in  my  own  way  and 
at  my  own  time." 

Mrs.  Tharp  turned  her  large  blue  eyes  upon  him. 
"  Don't  go  back,"  she  said. 

The  little  man  looked  at  her  irritably.  "  Why 
not?" 

"  You  haven't  had  any  luck  there." 

"  You've  a  lot  of  faith  in  me,  haven't  you  ?  " 

"  I  don't  want  anything  to  happen  to  you." 

"  Thank  you,  my  dear,  but  I'm  quite  capable  of 
looking  after  myself." 

Mrs.  Tharp's  slow  gaze  rested  on  his  damaged 
foot,  but  she  said  no  more.  The  pain  of  it  had 
made  him  short-tempered  and  unlike  himself.  She 
would  not  worry  him,  but  she  wished  very  much 
that  he  did  not  contemplate  returning.  However, 
sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof  and  Tom's 
foot  would  keep  him  prisoner  for  some  time  yet. 

Meanwhile  the  prisoner  lay  and  cogitated.  His 
problem  was  the  whereabouts  of  the  jewels,  a  nut 
impossible  for  him,  in  his  ignorance,  to  crack.  Hav- 
ing searched  the  newspapers  in  vain  for  any  allu- 


58  TREASURE   TROVE 

sion  to  them,  he  had  perforce  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  they  had  been  appropriated  by  someone  in 
the  house.  He  knew  that  the  family  consisted  of 
a  middle-aged  widow  in  comfortable  circumstances 
and  her  two  children,  and  that  they  kept  a  general 
servant.  One  of  these  four  people  must,  he  thought, 
be  in  possession  of  the  package,  but  which?  Was 
it  the  respectable  mother,  the  young  son,  the  pretty 
daughter,  or  the  servant  girl?  He  was  inclined  on 
the  whole  to  accredit  it  to  the  maid.  If  she  had  it, 
well  and  good,  by  some  means  or  other  he  would 
force  her  to  disgorge.  But  how  if  it  had  fallen  to 
one  of  the  other  three?  That  would  complicate 
matters.  He  could  search,  oh  yes,  force  an  entrance 
and  have  a  look  about  him.  He  knew  the  sort  of 
places  in  which  people  hid  their  valuables,  the  safes 
and  desks  and  drawers,  with  the  key  left  under  the 
mat  or  on  a  hook  among  the  ivy.  But  he  would  not 
venture  inside  that  house  again  if  he  could  help  it. 
His  wife's  "  You  haven't  had  any  luck  there,"  re- 
curred to  him.  It  was  seldom  that  she  offered  ad- 
vice, but  when  she  did  it  was  worth  listening  to. 
Tharp  was  a  bridge  player  and  knew  that  there  were 
inexplicable  runs  of  good  and  bad  luck.  When  the 
cards  were  against  him  he  always  played  cautiously ; 
it  was  only  when  fortune  had  declared  in  his  favour 
that  he  plunged. 

The  luck  had,  as  his  wife  asserted,  been  against 
him  at  The  Laurels,  and  therefore  he  would  be  care- 
ful. 


TREASURE    TROVE  59 

"  Who  do  you  think  has  the  parcel  ?  "  said  Flor- 
ence one  day,  when  he  had  made  it  evident  that  he 
wanted  to  talk  about  his  loss. 

"  The  slavey  who  sweeps  the  room  out  of  a 
morning  might  have  found  it,"  he  answered  slowly, 
"  or  the  son.  I  put  it  down  on  a  packet  of  his 
cigarettes.  But  the  old  woman  is  one  of  those  who 
keep  an  eye  on  everything.  She  may  have  just 
picked  it  up  and  said  nothing  to  nobody.  Women 
like  her  are  none  too  honest.  They'd  cheat  over  a 
railway  ticket  as  soon  as  look  at  you. 

"  Oh,  well,"  said  his  wife  philosophically,  "  any 
one  'ud  do  that." 

But  Tharp  was  of  a  different  opinion.  There  was 
cheating  and  cheating.  Some  people  made  a  fuss  if 
a  fellow  unexpectedly  won  at  cards,  but  he  held 
that  a  game  was  a  game.  You  played  to  win  and 
you  went  on  which  lay  suited  you  best.  He  him- 
self always  played  on  the  cross  and  no  one  had  ever 
spotted  him,  while  the  extra  risk  added  to  the  pleas- 
ure of  the  game.  But  railway  companies,  he  drew 
the  line  there;  Florence  had  never  known  him  to 
cheat  over  a  fare,  now  had  she? 

"  How  about  that  time  at  Margate,  when  you 
jumped  in  late  starting,  and  the  man  at  the  barrier 
didn't  notice  to  ask  for  your  ticket  when  we  got 
out?  You  hadn't  one,  and  I  don't  seem  to  remem- 
ber as  you  paid." 

"  My  good  girl,  who'd  pay  when  nobody  asked 
him  to?" 


60  TREASURE   TROVE 

"  Well — only  a  luney,"  allowed  the  other. 

"  This  foot  of  mine  doesn't  seem  to  pick  up  much 
strength,"  grumbled  the  invalid.  "  And  I've  got  my 
cough  back.  I  think  I  want  a  change." 

"  This  time  o'  year?  "  for  it  was  late  autumn,  and 
Mrs.  Tharp  looked  upon  August  as  the  holiday 
month. 

"  What  does  the  time  of  year  matter?  "  rejoined 
her  spouse  with  some  irritation.  Women  were  so 
limited!  Florence  who  had  lived  in  great  houses 
ought  to  have  known  better.  "  I  want  bracing,  and 
I  should  get  it  if  I  went  into  lodgings  on  those 
downs  beyond  Eastham." 

His  wife  gazed  at  him  in  stupefaction.  The 
downs  beyond  Eastham  were  a  lonely  stretch  of 
high  ground,  with  an  asylum  on  one  side  and  a  re- 
formatory on  the  other.  Her  husband,  who  was  as 
socially  inclined  as  a  Frenchman,  would  never  be 
able  to  endure  either  the  dulness  or  the  associa- 
tions. "  You'd  go  melancholy  mad,"  she  averred. 

"  Not  if  I'd  something  to  think  about.  Why, 
you  silly,  I'd  be  on  the  spot  there.  I  know  a  house 
opposite  the  Downs  Station  where  they  take  people, 
and  there  are  plenty  of  trains  running  into  East- 
ham  and  back." 

"  And  it's  a  penny  fare,"  said  Florence,  as  if  the 
detail  were  of  importance. 

"  You  and  the  kids  had  better  come  too/'  con- 
tinued the  lawgiver,  "  it'll  look  well." 

"But  what  should  I  do  with  myself?" 


TREASURE    TROVE  61 

Tharp  grinned.  "  Go  shopping  in  Eastham,"  he 
said,  and  his  wife  snorted  at  him  indignantly. 

"  Just  as  the  children  are  getting  on  so  nicely  at 
their  school  too,"  she  said,  but  she  did  not  seek 
to  turn  him  from  his  purpose.  Tharp  was  the  mas- 
ter spirit,  and  she  followed  where  he  led.  A  few 
days  later  therefore,  she  went  down  to  the  little 
house  opposite  the  Downs  Station  and  took  the 
rooms  for  a  week.  They  might  stay  longer,  but  she 
fancied  that  her  Tom  would  find  the  seven  days  in 
the  country,  in  the  depths  of  the  country,  about 
enough  for  him. 

Meanwhile  a  change  destined  to  upset  some  of 
Tharp's  calculations  had  taken  place  at  The  Laurels. 
The  day  following  Mrs.  Smart's  discovery  of  the 
jewels,  Linda  Olsen,  her  treasure  of  a  maid,  had 
given  notice.  She  had  been  three  years  in  her  place, 
and  though  slow,  had  been  satisfactory. 

"  But  why  do  you  want  to  leave  me  ? "  Mrs. 
Smart  had  demanded.  Linda  was  a  good  girl,  so 
efficient  and,  what  is  perhaps  of  more  importance 
to  the  suburban  mind,  so  clean.  Her  scrubbing  left 
a  board  cream-white,  instead  of  grey;  her  washing 
did  not  shrink  the  flannels,  nor  her  ironing  scorch 
the  handkerchiefs.  Under  her  mistress'  sharp  eye 
she  had  learnt  to  cook  and  to  bake  bread,  to  make 
preserves  and  to  polish  brass,  as  well  as  a  hundred 
other  useful  things.  She  now  explained  that  she 
had  not  seen  her  parents  for  three  years,  and  that 
they  had  written  begging  her  to  return.  She  was 


62  TREASURE   TROVE 

their  only  surviving  child,  the  only  one  out  of  six, 
and  they  were  getting  old.  She  had  saved  her 
wages  and  if  she  returned  would  be  able  to  make 
them  comfortable. 

"  Till  the  money  is  all  gone,"  said  Mrs.  Smart 
grimly.  "  Then  I  suppose  you  will  come  back." 

The  girl's  pale  cheek  reddened.  "  Kristoffer  Hel- 
leland,  he  is  coming  from  America  this  next  spring 
and  he  has  money  now,  oh  a  lot.  I  do  not  think  he 
will  let  me  come  back."  She  was  deeply  attached 
to  her  own  country,  and  to  the  little  town  half  way 
up  a  fjord,  in  southern  Norway,  the  town  in  which 
she  had  been  born.  She  thought  of  the  high  bar- 
ren ridges  in  each  side  of  the  narrow  water,  of  the 
wooden  houses  close  to  the  sea  on  a  spit  of  sandy 
land  and  of  the  tiny  steamer  that  three  times  a 
week  came  round  from  Christiansand.  Her  lovely 
land.  She  would  never,  never  leave  it  again. 

Mrs.  Smart,  when  she  heard  of  the  old  play- 
fellow who  had  grown  wealthy  in  America,  thought 
she  had  got  to  the  root  of  the  matter.  "  Ah  then,  of 
course  you  must  go,"  she  said,  feeling  rather  sorry 
for  the  girl.  How  sad  for  her,  just  when  she  had 
grown  used  to  English  comfort,  to  have  to  go  back 
to  the  cold  barren  poverty-stricken  land  from 
which  she  was  come.  Linda  had  told  her  that  the 
Norwegians  lived  principally  on  cheese  and  fish  and 
farm  produce;  and  that  provender  being  so  scarce 
the  careful  people  with  tiny  scythes  harvested  even 


TREASURE   TROVE  63 

the  grass  that  grew  by  the  roadside.  "  But  we  shall 
miss  you,  Linda." 

"  And  I,  too,"  said  Linda  graciously.  She  would 
be  unspeakably  glad  to  get  back  to  Flekkefjord,  to 
eat  once  more  the  food  to  which  since  her  child- 
hood she  had  been  accustomed,  to  speak  her  own 
language  and  settle  among  her  own  people.  She 
would  leave  The  Laurels  without  a  sigh  or  a  back- 
ward glance.  Nor  would  Mrs.  Smart  be  really  sorry 
to  see  her  go.  They  had  lived  happily  together,  but 
change  is  a  good  thing,  and  Linda  was  worth  bigger 
wages  than  she  had  been  getting.  The  mistress 
would  be  glad  to  have  a  younger  girl  in  the  kitchen, 
a  girl  to  train,  indeed  had  long  had  her  eye  upon 
the  daughter  of  a  clean  and  respectable  woman  in 
her  "  district."  This  girl,  Annie  Price,  was  now  just 
sixteen,  a  fit  and  proper  age  at  which  to  begin  earn- 
ing her  living. 

So  it  came  to  pass  that  when  Tharp,  still  limping 
a  little  but  otherwise  much  better  for  his  stay  on 
the  downs,  came  to  Eastham  to  prospect,  a  new  girl 
reigned  in  Linda's  kitchen. 

One  morning,  shortly  after  Eva  and  her  mother 
had  left  the  house  intent  upon  their  usual  shopping, 
a  working-man  with  a  bag  of  tools  upon  his  shoul- 
der limped  down  the  gravelled  path  which  led  to  the 
side  door.  He  had  been  sent  by  the  Gas  Company 
to  inspect  the  meter! 

Eastham  was  not  a  large  place  and  Annie  Price 


64  TREASURE   TROVE 

was  a  native.  She  knew  by  sight  most  of  its  in- 
habitants. "Newcomer?"  asked  she,  as  she  let 
him  in. 

Tharp  went  back  to  the  Cockney  twang  of  his 
boyhood,  a  twang  which  he  was  under  the  impres- 
sion he  had  eliminated  from  his  everyday  voice. 
"  The  chaps  'ere  don't  know  their  work,"  he  said 
cheerfully,  "  so  I've  been  sent  down  to  teach  'em." 

Annie  was  no  more  than  a  cheeky  schoolgirl.  She 
looked  the  little  man  up  and  down.  "  Did  they  let 
you  travel  'arf  price  ?  "  she  asked. 

Tharp  grinned  good-naturedly  and  took  some 
tools  out  of  his  bag.  He  did  various  things  to  the 
meter,  which  was  of  course  in  the  kitchen,  wrote 
some  figures  on  a  scrap  of  paper,  added  them  up, 
looked  perplexed,  and  then  added  them  up  again. 
"  I  say,  there's  a  leak  somewhere,"  he  said.  "  Your 
people  are  paying  more  than  they  should." 

"  Mrs.  Smart  won't  like  that,"  admitted  the  girl, 
who  was  neglecting  her  work  in  order  to  keep  an 
eye  on  the  stranger.  She  was  not  suspicious  of  him, 
she  was  only  anaemic  and  lazy. 

"  I'd  better  find  out  where  it  is,"  said  he,  smooth- 
ing his  stubby  beard  with  a  small  but  dirty  hand. 

"  All  right,"  and  Annie  led  the  way  to  the  dining- 
room.  In  appearance  she  was  typically  Welsh,  with 
large  grey  eyes,  dark  hair  and  well-formed  features ; 
but  it  is  a  question  whether  she  knew  that  her  father 
had  been  born  in  Carmarthen.  For  more  years  than 
she  could  count  he  had  worked  for  Mr.  Freeman, 


6S 

the  owner  of  the  biggest  lavender  and  mint  farm  in 
the  neighbourhood,  and  her  mother  was  Kentish. 

"  Bin  'ere  long?  "  asked  the  man  carelessly,  as  a 
swift  glance  assured  him  that  his  package  was  no 
longer  on  the  dining-room  mantel-shelf. 

"  A  fortnight." 

Tharp's  heart  sank.  "  Oh !  "  he  said.  "  And  the 
other  girl?" 

"  She  was  some  sort  of  a  foreigner  and  she  went 
back  'ome." 

"  There's  no  leak  here,"  he  said.  He  had  once 
found  employment  in  a  Gas  Works  and  as  a  con- 
sequence, really  knew  what  he  was  about.  "  P'r'aps 
it's  in  the  drorin'-room."  And  as  they  crossed  the 
little  passage  he  looked  at  the  girl  admiringly. 
"  Funny  to  'ave  a  foreigner  when  they  could  'a  got 
someone  like  you.  What  sort  was  she?" 

"  Not  like  what  you'd  think.  Quiet's  not  the 
word  for  her,  and  she  wasn't  a  bit  dressy,  not  like 
those  Frenchies  generally  are." 

"  Oh,  French  was  she  ?  " 

"  Well  I  did  hear  as  she  came  from  Normandy, 
and  that's  somewhere  in  France,  leastways  it  was 
when  I  went  to  school."  She  was  standing  by  the 
window  looking  idly  out  at  the  passers-by,  but  sud- 
denly she  sprang  back  and  made  for  the  door.  "  If 
that  isn't  Mrs.  Smart  come  back,  and  I've  never 
turned  out  my  room." 

"You  had  to  shew  me  round,"  the  man  sug- 
gested and  she  took  the  hint. 


66  TREASURE   TROVE 

"  If  you  please  ma'am,"  she  said  as  Mrs.  Smart 
and  Eva  let  themselves  into  the  house,  "there's  a 
man  come  from  the  Gas  Works." 

Tharp  standing  on  the  threshold  of  the  drawing- 
room,  his  bag  of  tools  across  his  shoulder,  his  work- 
man's dress  unimpeachably  dusty  and  worn,  looked 
what  he  professed  to  be.  "  Good-morning,  ma'am," 
he  said  politely ;  "  I've  been  sent  down  to  inspect 
your  meter  and  I  find  there's  a  slight  leakage  some- 
where. I've  looked  at  the  dinin'  and  drorin'-room 
burners  and  they're  all  right,  so  I  think  it  must  be 
upstairs."  His  quick  eyes  had  roved  over  the  faces 
before  him,  and  he  had  at  once  decided  that  who- 
ever was  guilty,  it  could  not  be  the  young  girl  with 
the  soft  and  friendly  eyes,  who  stood  so  quietly  by 
her  mother's  side.  He  was  glad  that  he  had  made 
his  way  into  the  house,  for  he  now  knew  that  neither 
the  servant  nor  Miss  Smart  had  his  parcel.  But 
the  French  girl  who  had  left,  what  more  likely  than 
that  she  had  carried  it  away  with  her? 

Mrs.  Smart  led  the  way  upstairs,  and  he  followed 
at  her  heels.  He  thought  her  a  notable-looking 
woman.  There  was  a  heaviness  about  her  jaw  which 
impressed  him;  and  her  eyes,  though  like  those  of 
her  daughter,  were  by  no  means  so  friendly.  The 
gas  in  the  servant's  bedchamber  having  been  cut 
off,  she  led  him  past  the  door,  and  Annie's  delin- 
quencies remained  for  the  moment  undiscovered.  In 
her  son's  room  the  window  was  open  and  a  breeze 
was  lifting  the  end  of  the  muslin  short-blind.  But 


TREASURE    TROVE  67 

Tharp's  delicate  nose  caught  a  faint  aroma  of  gas, 
and  he  realised  that  for  once  fortune  had  befriended 
him. 

"We  don't  often  use  gas  in  the  bedrooms," 
Mrs.  Smart  told  him.  "  A  candle  does  all  right  for 
the  minute  or  two  it  takes  my  boy  to  get  into  bed." 

"  But  there's  a  leak  here,"  said  the  man,  and 
striking  a  match,  he  moved  it  over  the  joints  of  the 
fittings  until  a  tiny  blaze,  a  mere  thread  of  flame, 
rewarded  him. 

Mrs.  Smart  was  amazed.  "  Well  I  never,"  she 
said,  "  and  I'm  always  supposed  to  be  so  good  at 
detecting  anything  of  that  sort." 

"  It  only  needs  this  nut  screwed  up,"  the  man  as- 
sured her.  "  I'll  have  it  all  right  in  a  jiffy.  If 
you've  the  window  always  open  here,  I  daresay  it 
would  not  be  noticed ;  after  all,  it's  nothing  much." 

Mrs.  Smart  thanked  him  and  went  to  take  off 
her  outdoor  clothes.  In  a  moment  Tharp  had  laid 
down  his  tools  and  slipped  across  to  the  big  green 
safe  in  the  opposite  corner.  The  thing  was  new, 
and  he  surmised  that  it  had  been  bought  after  his 
abortive  attempt  to  take  their  silver.  He  caught 
hold  of  the  big  lacquered  knob  in  the  centre  of  the 
door  and  pulled,  but  without  expecting  any  result. 
To  his  surprise,  however,  the  thick  and  heavy  door 
revolved  slowly  and  presently  disclosed  the  con- 
tents of  the  two  iron  shelves  within.  Tharp  searched 
with  quick  and  clever  fingers,  but  the  half-empty 
receptacle  only  held  large  and  heavy  pieces  of  sil- 


68  TREASURE   TROVE 

ver,  candelabra,  salvers,  a  tea-service,  and  he  bit  his 
lip  with  sharp  impatience.  But  he  understood.  The 
safe  was  locked  at  night  when  the  family  was  asleep, 
it  was  not  thought  necessary  to  secure  it  during  the 
time  they  were  up  and  on  the  alert.  As  to  the 
jewels,  if  Willy  Smart  had  them,  he  probably  car- 
ried them  about  with  him. 

Tharp  had  the  nut  screwed  on  before  Mrs.  Smart 
had  laid  aside  her  walking  apparel,  and  while  he 
tested  burner  and  fittings  in  her  room  she  moved 
about,  putting  the  clothes  she  had  taken  off  into 
their  places.  The  man  caught  glimpses  of  neat  piles 
of  linen,  of  hats  shrouded  in  tissue  paper,  of  hang- 
ing skirts,  but  only  glimpses,  and  they  whetted  his 
curiosity.  He  was  not  certain  about  Mrs.  Smart, 
and  some  wild  instinct  prompted  him  to  investigate 
further.  She  did  not,  however,  provide  him  with 
the  opportunity,  for  she  stood  by  until  he  had  fin- 
ished, then  took  him  to  her  daughter's  room  and 
the  study,  and  finally  showed  him  out  of  the  house. 

Tharp  returned  to  his  lodgings  fairly  well  satis- 
fied with  his  morning's  work.  He  had  been  in  al- 
most every  room  of  the  house,  he  had  been  able  to 
observe  the  position  of  the  furniture  and  the  possi- 
bilities of  concealment  which  it  afforded.  One  thing 
only  remained  for  him  to  do  before  coming  to  a 
conclusion.  He  had  seen  Mrs.  Smart,  her  daughter 
and  her  servant,  and  now  he  must  interview  her 
son. 

On  the  following  morning  therefore,  he  went  up 


TREASURE   TROVE  69 

to  town  by  the  eight  thirty-five.  He  had  seen 
photographs  of  Willy  Smart  at  The  Laurels  and 
he  contrived  to  swing  himself  into  the  young  man's 
compartment  as  the  train  was  starting.  His  game 
leg  made  it  difficult  for  him  to  secure  his  footing, 
indeed  it  was  Willy's  strong  hand  that  pulled  him 
in.  His  breathless  thanks  broke  the  ice  and  before 
long  they  were  amicably  discussing  stocks  and 
shares. 

Tharp  presently  turned  the  conversation.  He 
wanted  to  know  what  his  companion  thought  of 
Eastham  as  a  residential  suburb. 

Willy  Smart  had  been  born  in  the  little  place, 
had  seen  it  develop  and  had  a  citizen's  pride  in  it. 

"  It's  very  convenient,"  he  said  eagerly.  "  Only 
half  an  hour's  run  from  town." 

"Healthy?" 

"  I've  lived  here  all  my  life  and  can't  remember 
ever  having  a  day's  illness.  It's  so  pretty  too.  You 
should  see  it  in  the  spring,  when  the  laburnums  and 
lilacs  and  may  trees  are  all  out." 

"You  like  it,  then?"  said  Tharp  keenly.  He 
could  not  resist  the  temptation  to  study  the  man 
before  him. 

Willy  shifted  his  position  and  looked  out  of  the 
window. 

"  Oh  well,"  he  said  apologetically,  "  I  don't  want 
to  stop  in  one  place  all  my  life,  otherwise  it's  all 
right." 

"  Hasn't  there  been  some  talk  of  burglaries  down 


70  TREASURE   TROVE 

here?  The  wife's  a  bit  nervous,  she  likes  the  look 
of  the  place  but " 

Smart  was  taken  aback.  "  Well,"  he  said,  red- 
dening slowly,  "  I  don't  think  we've  more  than  our 
share.  Still — as  a  matter  of  fact — there  was  one 
at  our  place." 

"Lately?"  asked  his  companion. 

"  Some  weeks  back." 

"  Really  now  ?  That's  interesting.  Did  you  lose 
much?"  " 

"  Not  a  stiver.  We  found  the  silver  laid  out  on 
the  floor ;  but  when  we  came  to  count  it,  we  weren't 
a  penny  the  worse." 

"  Ex-traordinary !" 

"  Of  course  I  went  to  the  police  about  it,  but  they 
haven't  succeeded  in  finding  the  thief." 

Tharp  didn't  like  being  called  a  thief  and  he 
couldn't  see  why,  as  the  Smarts  had  been  none  the 
worse  for  his  visit,  they  should  have  called  in  the 
police. 

"  I  think  I  saw  something  about  it  in  one  of  the 
papers,"  he  said  thoughtfully.  "  Still  you  didn't 
lose  anything." 

"  No,"  said  Willy,  "  but  you  don't  like  to  think 
some  stranger  is  trying  to  get  hold  of  your  belong- 
ings. I  wouldn't  mind  fighting  him  for  them,  it's 
the  sneaking  in  at  night  that  I  object  to." 

"  Ah,  but  that's  his  cleverness,  you  know.  You've 
got  things  and  it's  your  business  to  look  after  them. 
He  wants  them  and  it's  his  to  try  and  get  them." 


TREASURE    TROVE  71 

Willy  accepted  this  dictum  with  surprising  meek- 
ness. "  I  don't  know  that  I'm  keen  on  my  belong- 
ings," he  said  restlessly.  "  They  hamper  a  fellow. 
Still  if  you've  got  them,  you  can't  let  another  man 
take  them  from  you." 

"  Dog  in  the  manger,"  smiled  Tharp. 

"  That's  about  it,  I  fancy." 

"  I  was  reading  about  a  burglary  lately  and  it 
came  out  that  the  man  had  been  disturbed  before 
he  had  had  time  to  take  anything,  indeed  he'd  been 
in  such  a  hurry  that  he'd  actually  left  behind  a  parcel 
he  got  at  another  house." 

"I  say  now,  did  he  really?"  cried  Willy  delight- 
edly. "What  a  lark!  What  was  it  he  left  behind  ?" 

Tharp's  bright  eyes  scanned  the  innocent  young 
face.  "Jewellery,"  he  said  rather  shortly.  It  was 
evident  to  him  that  Willy  knew  nothing  about  the 
package. 

"  And  the  fellow  left  it  behind  ?  I  hope  it  was 
valuable  ?" 

"  Oh,  I  believe  it  was,"  said  Tharp. 

"What  a  joke!    What  did  they  do  with  it?" 

"  Don't  know.  Handed  it  over  to  the  police,  I 
suppose,"  said  Tharp  bitterly,  and  the  other  nodded 
as  if  he  understood.  That  was  what  he  would  have 
done — handed  it  over  to  the  police.  Tharp  thought 
of  the  big  red  mansion  and  of  his  climb  among  the 
ivy  and  of  the  open  passage  window.  The  family 
had  been  out,  the  servants  entertaining  their  friends 
on  the  other  side  of  the  house  and  he  had  had  the 


72  TREASURE   TROVE 

place  to  himself.  It  had  been  a  warm  afternoon, 
and  not  even  a  gardener  had  been  about.  The 
jewels  had  been  in  their  case  and  he  had  only  had  to 
unlock  it  and  fill  his  pockets.  Lady  Dudley  Bodger 
had  not  returned  from  her  motor  drive  until  late 
that  evening,  and  by  that  time  he  had  been  back  in 
Camberwell  Grove.  It  had  been  a  pleasant  expe- 
dition and  what  he  had  come  for  had  been  easily 
made  his.  He  glanced  across  at  Willy  Smart  with 
a  sour  smile.  So  he  would  have  given  the  jewels  up 
to  the  police,  would  he?  But  he  had  not  had  the 
opportunity.  No,  either  the  French  maid — poor, 
innocent  Linda  Olsen,  native  of  the  most  honest 
country  in  the  world — had  them,  or  the  young  fel- 
low's mother,  and  if  the  latter,  it  was  evident  she 
was  not  of  her  son's  way  of  thinking.  He  felt  that 
Linda's  disappearance  was  suspicious,  but  he  still 
hoped  that  the  jewels  were  within  his  reach.  Mrs. 
Smart's  heavy  cheerful  face  had  impressed  him  as 
inscrutable,  and  he  knew  that  he  would  not  rest 
until  he  had  had  his  sensitive  fingers  among  her  ac- 
cumulations. But  he  must  be  careful,  very  careful, 
for  his  wife  had  prophesied  disaster. 


CHAPTER  V 

TOM  THARP  had  long  looked  upon  Christmas 
with  its  jollity  and  merrymaking  as  a  time  set  apart 
for  enterprises  such  as  those  by  which  he  profited. 
It  was  pre-eminently  the  season  for  eating  and 
drinking.  People  who  could  not  afford  port  and 
sherry  drank  home-made  wines,  but  everybody 
drank.  Even  the  labourer  who  had  been  out  of 
work  for  weeks  felt  himself  entitled  to  more  beer 
than  he  could  pay  for,  while  his  prosperous  neigh- 
bour stood  a  pint  to  this  man  and  to  that,  and  felt 
that  he  was  '  keeping  Christmas.'  The  ladder  of 
society  has  many  rungs  and  a  different  bottle  hangs 
by  each.  People  in  the  Smarts'  position  drank  beer 
for  dinner,  and  had  port  with  their  dessert,  while 
Annie  in  the  kitchen,  had  with  her  orange,  apple 
and  nuts,  a  glass  of  ginger  wine.  The  consequence 
of  so  much  eating  and  drinking  was  that  on  Christ- 
mas and  Boxing  Nights  people  were  wont  to  sleep 
heavily.  They  relied  upon  the  promise  of  '  peace 
and  good  will ' ;  and  when  Tharp  was  about,  woke 
to  disillusionment. 

This  year  he  had  decided  to  make  his  last  at- 
tempt to  regain  Lady  Dudley  Bodger's  jewels,  on 
Christmas  night.  His  visit,  as  a  man  from  the  Gas 
Works,  had  been  prolific  in  information  and  among 

73 


74  TREASURE   TROVE 

other  things  he  had  noticed  a  square  skylight  which 
illumined  the  loft  and  was  over  a  trap-door.  It 
would  be  easy  for  him  to  swarm  up  the  rain-water 
pipe,  cross  the  bathroom  roof  and  climb  to  the 
skylight.  Once  inside  the  house  and  his  course  was 
clear.  If  the  jewels  were  there  at  all  they  must  be 
in  Mrs.  Smart's  bedroom;  and  that  was  where  he 
would  search.  He  knew  exactly  where  to  look  and 
also,  that  though  he  must  oil  the  locks,  such  furni- 
ture as  hers,  old  and  carefully  polished  would  be  un- 
likely to  creak.  She  had  pulled  open  drawers  and 
unlocked  wardrobe  doors  while  he  had  been  pre- 
tending to  test  the  gas ;  and  he  had  noted  with  ad- 
miration how  quietly  they  had  moved  under  her 
hands.  He  too  had  his  reasons  for  objecting  to 
'modern  stuff,  gimcracks.' 

On  Christmas  night  therefore,  Tharp  after 
bicycling  over  from  Camberwell,  stabled  his  machine 
behind  the  hedge  of  an  empty  house  and  made  his 
way  into  the  Smarts'  garden.  He  had  with  him  a 
small  silken  ladder  and  as  soon  as  he  had  cut  out 
the  two  panes  of  the  skylight,  and  lifted  aside  the 
trap-door,  he  fastened  this  to  one  side  of  the  open- 
ing and  let  himself  quietly  down.  Mrs.  Smart,  who 
slept  on  a  feather  bed  or  rather  between  two  insur- 
gent waves  of  it,  was  in  the  first  sweet  sleep  of  night. 
She  had  eaten  of  the  turkey  which  had  been  her 
mother's  Christmas  gift,  and  she  had  partaken  spar- 
ingly of  the  good  port  wine  which  Willy,  in  honour 
of  the  occasion,  had  brought  down  from  town.  She 


TREASURE    TROVE  75 

enjoyed  a  glass  of  wine,  no  one  more,  but  that  self- 
restraint  which  is  called  temperance,  underlay  all 
her  other  qualities.  Inconsistently  comfort-loving 
and  sensuous,  she  seemed  the  last  person  to  exercise 
a  wise  frugality,  but  not  even  the  license  of  Christ- 
mas could  lead  her  astray.  However,  even  one  glass 
of  port  wine  can  affect  a  water-drinker,  and  Mrs. 
Smart  had  certainly  fallen  asleep  as  soon  as  her 
head  was  on  its  lavender-scented  pillow. 

Tharp,  moving  as  if  he  were  Ariel's  self,  had 
noiselessly  turned  the  oiled  handle  of  her  door  and 
slipped  into  the  room.  He  paused  to  ascertain  if 
she  were  asleep  and  then  reassured  by  the  sound  of 
deep  and  regular  breathing,  set  about  his  work.  He 
was  used  to  the  unbroken  slumbers  of  Christmas- 
keeping  people,  and  having  thought  to  find  this 
particular  woman  asleep,  he  did  not  trouble  to  pay 
her  any  further  attention ;  which  was  a  mistake  and 
one  which,  if  he  had  known  her  a  little  better,  he 
would  not  have  committed. 

'For  Mrs.  Smart  had  lived  from  day  to  day  in  the 
expectation  of  his  coming,  and  such  expectation  is 
a  strain.  Always  a  light  sleeper,  her  nights  were 
now  filled  with  dreams,  her  mind  struggling  with 
the  drowsiness  of  her  body,  and  presenting  her  more 
frequently  than  she  liked,  with  images  of  terror. 
When  she  opened  her  eyes  upon  the  slight  figure 
noiselessly  ransacking  her  wardrobe,  it  seemed  to 
her  at  first  that  one  of  these  had  materialised  itself. 

Tharp,  who  was  in  a  smoke-grey  suit,  carried  a 


76  TREASURE    TROVE 

dark  lanthorn  the  beams  of  which  made  his  hands 
and  arms  and  even  his  figure  occasionally  visible. 
Mrs.  Smart,  paralysed  with  momentary  fear,  her 
limbs  loose  beside  her  and  her  mouth  suddenly 
parched,  lay  watching  him;  and  as  she  watched,  as 
she  made  out  that  the  man  was  small  and  slight  and 
young-looking,  anger  began  to  quicken  in  her 
breast.  What  right  had  this  insignificant-looking 
stranger  in  her  house,  in  her  room?  How  dare  he 
lay  sacrilegious  ringers  upon  what  belonged  to  her? 
How  dare  he  pry  and  search  in  her  cupboards,  turn- 
ing over  what  was  hers,  violating  the  secrecy  of  her 
arrangements.  Her  eyes  grew  fierce  and  her  heart 
hardened  itself  against  this  burglar  who  after  all, 
was  no  bugbear  but  a  man.  A  burly  ruffian  of  bear- 
like  power  and  build,  the  typical  Bill  Sykes,  would 
have  had  more  power  over  Mrs.  Smart's  imagina- 
tion. This  slim  young  fellow  with  his  fine  hands  and 
dexterous  movements,  did  not  impress  her  in  the 
least.  She  would  have  cowered  before  an  appear- 
ance of  strength,  but  mere  intelligence  was  a  dif- 
ferent matter.  She  had  some  of  her  own,  enough 
she  hoped  to  outwit  the  stranger ;  and  that  reminded 
her  that  he  was  not  digging  and  delving  among  her 
belongings  out  of  either  malice  or  curiosity,  but  that 
he  had  come  in  search  of  something  which  he  con- 
sidered his.  The  thought  cooled  her  anger  and  al- 
lowed her  to  lie  and  watch  his  proceedings  with  a 
certain  growing  equanimity.  What  he  thought  his 
was  now  hers,  and  her  optimistic  temperament  made 


TREASURE   TROVE  77 

her  hopeful  of  keeping  it.  He  would  be  a  spry 
youth  if  he  got  the  better  of  her,  a  woman  well 
versed  in  the  ways  of  young  people  and  old  enough 
to  be  his  mother.  Calm  though  she  was  and  faintly 
contemptuous  of  her  adversary,  Mrs.  Smart  never- 
theless suffered  from  the  suspense.  When  Tharp, 
softly  closing  the  wardrobe  doors,  went  across  to 
the  washstand,  her  pulses  beat  quickly.  But  no,  he 
had  passed  the  Swiss  chalet  without  even  glancing 
in  its  direction ! 

The  man  did  his  work  well.  He  had  gone  me- 
thodically through  the  wardrobe,  had  climbed  up 
and  investigated  its  top,  had  peered  behind  each  piece 
of  outstanding  wood,  and  he  overhauled  washstand 
and  chest-of-drawers  as  thoroughly,  sifting  the  con- 
tents of  the  latter  through  his  fingers,  lifting  each 
drawer  out  of  its  frame  and  flashing  his  light 
through  the  dark  apertures.  Satisfied  at  last,  he 
pushed-to  the  last  drawer  and  turned  towards  the 
bed. 

On  Mrs.  Smart's  marriage  her  mother,  who  had 
not  had  much  to  bestow,  had  presented  her  with  the 
old  fourposter ;  and  ever  since,  year  in  and  year  out, 
Minty  had  slept  under  its  dimity  roof.  During  the 
annual  spring  cleaning,  the  most  arduous  day's 
labour  was  always  that  of  stretching  the  stiffly 
starched  back  and  cover  onto  their  wooden  frame, 
and  the  hanging  of  the  valance  and  curtains.  The 
posts  were  deeply  carven  with  a  design  of  wheat, 
the  ears  springing  out  at  the  top,  after  the  fashion 


78  TREASURE   TROVE 

of  the  lotus  leaves  in  ancient  Egyptian  capitals. 
They  blessed  the  bed  with  fruitfulness  and  gave  it 
value;  and  Mrs.  Smart,  who  rubbed  and  polished 
them  with  her  own  hands,  was  proud  of  their  an- 
tiquity. What  with  all  the  starched  dimity  which 
hung  from  and  beside  the  curtain  poles,  and  that 
which  had  been  tacked  on  to  its  frame  below  the 
palliasse  however,  the  bed  might  have  held  innum- 
erable secrets;  and  when  Tharp  turned  towards  it, 
he  cast  a  dubious  look  over  its  immense  and  shadowy 
whiteness. 

As  he  stepped  noiselessly  towards  her,  Mrs. 
Smart's  discreet  eyelids  drooped,  and  thinking  it 
wise  to  take  on  the  semblance  of  sleep,  she  lifted  her 
upper  lip  a  very  little  and  let  out  the  beginnings  of 
sound.  Tharp  adjusting  his  lanthorn  contrived  that 
its  light  should  be  faintly  diffused  through  the 
general  obscurity.  A  sudden  flash  awakens,  but  a 
gentle  lessening  of  the  darkness  has  no  such  dis- 
astrous effect.  Before  beginning  again,  he  paused 
to  glance  keenly  at  the  woman  in  the  bed,  at  the 
tumbled  dark  hair  and  immobile  countenance.  It 
struck  him  that  that  was  what  she  would  look  like 
when  dead,  and  he  could  fancy  from  the  set  of  her 
jaw  that  whatever  secret  she  had,  would  go  with 
her  into  the  grave.  So  far  he  had  found  nothing, 
had  come  upon  no  trace  and  the  sight  of  this  reso- 
lute face  lying  as  it  would  in  its  last  sleep,  left  him 
uneasy.  Not  on  that  account  however  would  he 
slacken  his  search,  for  he  also  was  of  a  good  cour- 


TREASURE   TROVE  79 

age.  He  turned  to  his  work,  his  clever  fingers 
quartering  the  ground,  slipping  in  and  out,  testing 
for  the  indication  of  weight  which  would  tell  him 
that  something  unusual  was  at  hand.  Palliasse, 
hangings,  valance,  bolster,  he  examined  each  in  turn, 
but  found  nothing.  The  fine  old  bed  was  as  inno- 
cent of  contraband  as  the  row  of  boots  under  the 
dressing-table,  every  one  of  which  he  had  lifted  and 
shaken ! 

The  man  was  puzzled.  He  stood  for  some  sec- 
onds considering,  while  his  eyes  roved  quickly  about 
the  room,  and  Mrs.  Smart,  who  was  superstitious, 
felt  glad  that  she  had  hung  the  gilt  horse-shoe  that 
had  been  Eva's  Christmas  present,  toe  downward 
over  her  door.  It  was  only  within  the  last  day  or 
two  that  someone  had  told  her  it  was  unlucky  to 
hang  a  horse-shoe  upside  down. 

At  last  the  enemy  moved  away  from  her  bed  and 
stepped  towards  the  fireplace.  Mrs.  Smart  thrilled 
with  weakening  hope  as  the  man  after  carefully 
examining  grate  and  chimney  turned  his  attention 
to  the  mantel-shelf.  He  glanced  at  its  ornaments 
with  contempt,  peered  inside  the  clock  case,  lifted 
the  cheap  green  vases  and  opened  the  unlocked 
trinket-case ;  last  of  all  he  came  to  the  shut  but  not 
closed  chalet,  the  chalet  which  had  been  made,  poor 
pretty  fragile  thing,  to  hold  a  tinkling  musical  box. 
Mrs.  Smart  saw  his  fingers  push  back  the  lid,  even 
faintly  rustle  the  paper  within,  and  when  with  Ian- 
thorn  turned  onto  the  top  package,  he  read  the  in- 


8o  TREASURE   TROVE 

scription  "Letters  from  my  husband,"  she  could 
almost  fancy  that  he  "  pshawed  "  under  his  breath. 
At  any  rate  he  turned  away  with  a  hopeless  ges- 
ture. 

Where  could  the  jewels  be?  He  wanted  them 
very  much.  They  had  been  a  splendid  haul  and 
the  money  they  would  have  fetched  meant  a  good 
deal  to  him.  Having  been  laid  up  for  so  many 
weeks,  he  was  actually  a  little  short  of  cash ;  but  if 
only  he  could  have  laid  his  hands  on  that  necklace 
and  tiara,  he  would  have  had  money  to  spend  on 
necessities,  money  to  throw  away  upon  pleasures 
and  money  to  put  in  the  bank,  rolls  and  rolls  of  fat 
golden  sovereigns.  He  stood,  once  more  at  a  loss. 
Perhaps  after  all,  and  in  spite  of  the  instinct  which 
kept  him  uneasily  suspicious  of  Mrs.  Smart,  the 
French  servant  had  carried  them  away  with  her. 

Meanwhile  Mrs.  Smart's  heart  was  drumming 
out  a  paean  of  thanksgiving.  He  had  not  found 
them,  he  must  have  almost  touched  them  and  yet 
he  had  not  found  them.  "  Well  ?"  she  said  sud- 
denly, her  voice  from  the  depths  of  the  great  bed 
sounding  hollow  and  strange,  and  causing  the  bur- 
glar to  spring  round  in  sudden  fear. 

He  flashed  the  lanthorn  onto  her  face,  but  only 
to  realise  that  his  apprehension  was  greater  than 
hers.  She  still  lay  in  her  furrow  between  the  swell- 
ing halves  of  the  feather  bed,  her  dark  head  sunk 
in  the  pillows  that  she  had  sewed  and  waxed  and 
stuffed;  but  her  gaze,  although  the  darkness  ren- 


TREASURE   TROVE  81 

dered  him  invisible,  was  directed  towards  him  and 
was  full  of  a  bold  indignation. 

"  Oh,  hush ! "  he  cried,  instinctively  lifting  his 
hand,  and  Mrs.  Smart  rightly  interpreted  the  ges- 
ture as  one  of  fear. 

"  I  like  your  impudence,"  she  said  wrathfully  and 
without  lowering  her  voice,  and  as  she  spoke  she 
pulled  herself  into  a  sitting  posture  and  gathered 
the  clothes  warmly  about  her.  ".What  are  you 
doing  in  my  room?  " 

Tharp  was  taken  aback,  but  his  quick  brain  sug- 
gested that  the  crepe  mask  he  wore  might  affect 
this  woman  as  it  had  others.  Taking  a  step  for- 
ward he  came  within  the  radius  of  light  and  Mrs. 
Smart  could  see  that  her  first  impression  of  him 
was  correct,  that  he  was  small,  youthful-looking 
and  of  a  refined  appearance.  She  scanned  all  that 
was  visible  of  his  face,  a  broad  brow,  pointed  chin 
and  two  long  narrow  lips,  and  her  steady  gaze 
proved  disconcerting. 

"  What  am  I  doing  in  your  room  ?  "  said  Tharp 
at  last,  "  I  fancy  you  know  that,  about  as  well  as  I 
do.  I've  come  after  the  jewels."  He  stiffened  his 
back  and  tried  a  bluff.  "  Oh  don't  you  pretend  you 
haven't  got  them,  for  I've  reliable  information  that 
you  took  them  and  kept  them,  and  that  they're  some- 
where in  this  room." 

Mrs.  Smart  looked  at  him  contemptuously.  After 
all  his  bluff  was  not  better  than  hers ;  but  then  she 
was  certain  that  he  must  be  guessing.  "  I  don't 


82  TREASURE   TROVE 

know  what  you  mean,"  she  said.  Being  mistress 
of  the  situation  she  could  afford  to  parley,  was  in- 
deed sufficiently  interested  in  the  man  to  do  so. 

"  I  came  here  some  time  ago,  two  months  by  now 
it  must  be " 

"  Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  you  were  the 
burglar  who  came  after  our  silver?" 

Tharp  nodded.  "  And  precious  useless  stuff  I 
found  it.  Much  too  big  for  me  to  carry  away." 

"  Ah,  but  you  would  have  made  shift  to  take 
some  if  we  had  not  disturbed  you."  she  retorted 
shrewdly.  "  And  to  think  it  was  only  a  little  man 
like  you,  as  young  as  my  own  son ! "  She  was 
amazed  at  her  former  fears. 

Tharp  was  several  years  older  than  she  thought 
and  his  size  happened  to  be  a  sore  point.  "  Come 
to  think  of  it,"  he  said  sulkily,  "  diamonds  are  al- 
ways small  and  donkeys  big.  But  those  jewels  now. 
You  might  just  as  well  give  them  up.  What  could 
you  do  if  you  kept  them  ?  All  the  trade  has  descrip- 
tions, and  if  you  tried  to  sell  would  be  down  on 
you  like  a  shot.  But  it's  different  with  me.  I 
know  my  way  about  and  could  get  rid  of  them 
easy." 

Mrs.  Smart  heard  him  with  interest.  So  the 
jewels  were  as  valuable  as  she  had  thought,  more  so 
perhaps.  All  the  more  reason  then  for  her  to  keep 
what  she  had  found.  She  felt  that  she  could  do  this 
best,  by  feigning  ignorance.  "  I  don't  know  what 
you  are  talking  about,"  she  said,  and  so  indiffer- 


TREASURE    TROVE  83 

ently  that  Tharp  felt  more  doubtful  than  before.  He 
tried  another  tack. 

"  Look  here,  if  you'll  give  them  up,  I'll  go  shares 
with  you.  I  can't  make  a  better  offer  than  that,  but 
I  swear  on  my  honour  I'll  give  you  half  of  what- 
ever I  get." 

"  A  thief's  honour,"  thought  Mrs.  Smart  distrust- 
fully, and  maintained  her  plea  of  ignorance.  "  What 
are  these  jewels  and  where  did  you  get  them?  "  she 
asked. 

Tharp  hesitated.  "  Where'd  I  get  them?  Oh 
from  a  big  house  not  a  hundred  miles  away,  and  I 
left  them  on  your  dining-room  mantel-piece." 

"  Then  they  aren't  your  jewels?  " 

"  We-ell,  things  change  hands.  They're  mine 
now." 

"  Or  they  may  have  changed  hands  again,"  said 
Mrs.  Smart.  "  Are  you  sure  you  left  them  here  ?  " 

"  Positive." 

"  In  a  heap  or  a  box  or  what?  " 

The  question  annoyed  him,  for  if  she  had  had 
them  she  would  hardly  have  asked  it.  "  Parcelled 
up  in  brown  paper,"  he  said. 

"  Oh,"  returned  Mrs.  Smart,  as  if  busy  consider- 
ing this  information.  "  Well,  I  haven't  seen  that 
parcel  and  I  don't  want  to.  Another  woman's 
jewellery — why  I  should  have  had  to  send  it  back 
to  her !  What  a  bad  lot  you  must  be,  and  so  young 
too.  I  am  afraid  your  mother  must  have  spoilt 
you."  She  looked  at  him  severely,  the  lines  of  her 


84  TREASURE   TROVE 

pleasant  face  full  of  reprobation,  and  Tharp  felt  for 
all  the  world  as  if  he  were  what  she  thought  him. 

"  Oh  come  now,"  he  said,  "  it  takes  all  sorts  to 
make  a  world,  and  as  things  go  I'm  not  a  bad  lot. 
I  was  born  light-fingered  and  I  make  it  pay,  that's 
all.  A  man  should  use  his  gifts.  You're  not  re- 
sponsible for  them  because  they  were  given  you  free 
gratis,  and  for  nothing  when  you  came  into  this 
wicked  world ;  but  what  you've  got  I  take  it  you're 
expected  to  use." 

Mrs.  Smart  continued  to  look  at  him  severely. 
"  Young  man,"  she  said,  and  sitting  there,  huddled 
in  the  white  bedclothes,  she  looked  like  some  old 
wise  owl,  "  you  oughtn't  to  be  a  burglar  and  you 
know  you  oughtn't,  and  that's  all  there  is  to  it." 

Tharp  shrugged  his  shoulders  lightly.  "  Well, 
well,"  he  said,  "  that  doesn't  matter ;  what  I'm  wor- 
ried about  is  these  jewels,  clinking  fine  things  they 
are,  and  I  want  them.  Do  you  think  your  slavey 
has  had  a  finger  in  the  pie  ?  " 

"  The  girl  I  had  then  is  gone." 

"That  looks  as  if  she  knew  something  about 
them." 

"It  isn't  likely,  for  she  was  a  Norwegian  and 
Norwegian  girls  are  a  marvel  for  honesty.  Not  a 
hairpin  nor  a  sheet  of  notepaper,  nor  so  much  as  a 
sweet  will  they  touch." 

"  Exceptions  prove  the  rule."  He  did  not  believe 
that  any  kind  of  foreigner  was  likely  to  be  par- 
ticular, especially  in  the  case  of  jewels  worth  some 


TREASURE    TROVE  85 

thousands  of  pounds.  He  looked  at  Mrs.  Smart 
thoughtfully,  inclined  to  believe  in  her  ignorance. 
She  had  spoken  the  truth  about  her  servant,  a  truth 
which  he  could  test,  why  not  then  about  the  jewels? 

"  You  have  a  son  and  a  daughter,"  he  said,  and 
looked  at  her  inquiringly. 

To  his  astonishment  the  equable  woman  flashed 
into  sudden  anger.  "  If  my  boy  had  seen  your 
parcel  it  would  have  been  in  the  hands  of  the  police 
before  now,"  she  said  sharply,  "  and  as  to  my 
daughter — how  dare  you — you — "  she  leant  with 
bitter  emphasis  on  the  pronoun — "  how  dare  you 
even  mention  her?"  She  had  raised  her  voice  a 
little  and  Tharp  looked  at  her  in  alarm. 

"  Somebody  is  about,"  he  said,  and  slipped  has- 
tily round  the  bed.  For  one  moment  he  hesitated, 
the  handle  of  the  door  in  his  hand,  and  then  his  in- 
dignation got  the  better  of  him.  Besides  his  wife, 
this  was  the  only  woman  who  knew  him  for  a  thief ; 
and  she  had  not  only  disapproved,  she  had  been  con- 
temptuous. The  censor  of  respectability  had  been 
swung  before  his  nostrils  too  many  years  for  him 
to  tamely  submit  to  its  removal.  He  was  furious 
with  Mrs.  Smart. 

"  After  all,"  he  cried,  "  I  believe  you've  got  them. 
One  thief  knows  another."  And  shutting  off  his 
lanthorn,  he  vanished  into  the  outer  darkness. 


CHAPTER  VI 

TOM  THARP  having  shot  his  bolt  at  a  venture  and 
got  nothing  but  an  unanswered,  unanswerable  ques- 
tion, made  off  in  haste.  As  he  climbed  the  silken 
ladder  into  the  moonlit  darkness  of  the  loft,  he 
heard  Mrs.  Smart  calling  to  her  son ;  and  he  cursed 
her,  as  he  ran  across  to  the  skylight.  But  he  knew 
he  was  safe.  Willy  Smart  might  come  flying  down 
the  garden  after  him,  but  by  the  time  the  house  door 
was  unlocked,  unbolted  and  unchained,  he  would  be 
on  his  bicycle  and  heading  for  London.  He  was  re- 
turning a  chilled  and  disappointed  man,  for  he  knew 
that  whether  Mrs.  Smart  or  the  Norwegian  girl 
had  his  package,  it  was  lost  to  him.  He  had  now 
done  all  that  he  could,  and  commonsense  on  the 
whole  inclining  him  to  the  belief  that  the  stones 
were  no  longer  in  England,  he  was  more  than  half 
satisfied  with  his  evening's  work.  At  least  that 
plump  old  woman  with  the  inscrutable  face  had  not 
got  the  better  of  him.  The  necklace  and  tiara  had 
not  been  in  her  room.  Having  gone  over  every 
inch  of  space  he  was  positive  of  that.  If  it  had  been 
otherwise  however,  he  could  not  have  helped  it, 
for  his  last  visit  to  The  Laurels  had  been  paid. 
The  tenacity  of  the  Englishman  is  evidenced  by  the 
care  which  policemen  take  of  the  stable  after  the 

86 


TREASURE   TROVE  87 

steed  has  been  stolen.  The  Smarts'  house  would 
never  more  be  accessible  to  thieves.  The  burglar 
had  come  and  come  again,  and  the  sluggish  imagina- 
tion of  all  the  members  of  the  force  would  be 
stirred.  From  thenceforward  the  man  on  duty  at 
night  would  have  an  eye — a  bull's-eye — upon  The 
Laurels  and  the  guardianship  of  that  house  would 
pass  into  a  tradition. 

Tom  Tharp  with  his  gutter  shrewdness,  always 
knew  when  to  give  any  neighbourhood  a  wide  berth ; 
and  from  that  Christmas  Day  he  avoided  Eastham, 
almost  forgetting,  almost  but  not  quite,  the  un- 
solved problem  that  it  held  for  him. 

That  night,  after  Willy  and  Eva,  excited  and  no 
little  disturbed,  had  returned  shivering  to  their  beds, 
Mrs.  Smart  put  out  the  candle  which  she  had 
lighted  and,  softly  happed  about  with  blankets  and 
all  those  innumerable  feathers  that  supported  and 
surrounded  her,  lay  thinking  of  the  man  with  whom 
she  had  so  lately  talked,  the  man  who  if  he  could — 
this  was  how  she  put  it  to  herself — would  have 
stolen  her  treasure  trove.  That  he  had  not  suc- 
ceeded was  in  his  favour,  but  she  was  conscious  for 
all  her  triumph  of  a  little  residue  of  anger.  He 
had  wanted  what  was  hers,  and  though  she  felt 
secure  against  further  molestation,  she  quite  illogic- 
ally  resented  the  suspicious  search  and  his  -too  just 
appreciation  of  herself.  Not  that  his  words  had 
carried  conviction  or  found  their  way  to  her  con- 
science, for  Minty  Smart  was  perfectly  satisfied 


88  TREASURE   TROVE 

with  her  own  ways  and  works.  It  had  never  oc- 
curred to  her  to  doubt  their  wisdom  or  propriety; 
it  did  not  now,  but  she  felt  vaguely  uncomfortable, 
like  a  hen  whose  feathers  have  been  ruffled  by  an 
adverse  wind. 

Nevertheless  it  was  a  soothing  thought  that  in 
their  war  of  wits  she  had  come  off  victor.  The 
man  had  searched  her  room,  had  questioned  her 
and  gone  away  empty.  She  looked  through  the 
darkness  of  the  wintry  night  toward  the  mantel- 
shelf. How  her  heart  had  leaped  when  those 
light  fingers  of  his  had  touched  the  Swiss  box,  lift- 
ing the  warped  lid  and  lightly  rustling  the  papers 
within.  He  had  felt  sure  that  they  were  only  let- 
ters; that  nobody  would  hide  valuables  in  such  a 
place  and  he  had  turned  away.  Mrs.  Smart  smiled 
to  herself.  She  had  hidden  things  before,  innocent 
things,  trifles  that  she  was  keeping  from  her  hus- 
band, other  trifles  that  had  to  do  with  Christmas 
and  birthdays.  After  all  the  burglar  had  been  no 
cleverer  than  the  other  men  with  whom  in  her  time 
she  had  had  dealings. 

In  due  course  another  aspect  of  the  matter,  one 
which  caused  her  to  draw  a  quick  breath  of  relief, 
presented  itself.  The  envelope  of  mounted  gems 
was  now  indisputably  hers.  Tharp  had  made  his 
search  and  failed.  He  had  had  the  house  at  his 
mercy,  had  looked  whithersoever  he  would;  and  in 
spite  of  his  last  words,  she  felt  that  he  had  satisfied 
himself  as  to  the  innocence  of  her  and  her  room. 


TREASURE   TROVE  89 

He  would  think  from  now  on,  that  Linda  had  them, 
Linda  the  scrupulous  Norwegian !  Mrs.  Smart  with 
her  knowledge  of  Linda's  character  thought  that 
rather  amusing.  At  any  rate  the  jewels  were  now 
really  and  truly  hers.  No  one  in  all  the  world 
knew  that  she  had  them,  no  one  could  interfere  with 
her  or  lay  claim  to  them. 

What  should  she  do  with  them?  How  convert 
them  into  money?  They  were  very  very  lovely, 
but  not  on  that  account  would  she  keep  them  by 
her;  she  was  no  miser,  even  of  gems.  Of  course 
they  must  be  taken  out  of  their  settings  and  re- 
solved into  mere  heaps  of  coloured  crystal.  And 
then? 

Mrs.  Smart  did  not  know.  She  turned  the  ques- 
tion over  and  over  in  her  mind,  seeking  an  answer, 
and  as  she  did  so  sleep  came  upon  her  unawares, 
the  healthy  sleep  out  of  which  Tharp  had  awakened 
her. 

Boxing  Day  that  year  came  in  with  a  scurry  of 
snow.  The  heavens  brooded,  borne  down  by  their 
weight  of  grey  water  and  every  few  minutes  a 
whirl  of  flakes  further  darkened  the  air.  Annie 
Price  running  to  answer  a  sharply  impatient  ring 
at  the  front  door,  wondered  who  could  be  coming 
so  early  on  such  a  morning,  and  found  herself  face 
to  face  with  that  little  Jack-in-office,  the  telegraph 
boy.  New  to  his  work,  proud  of  his  uniform  and 
of  the  usual  gaily  impudent  type,  he  handed  over  a 
buff  envelope,  and  snapping  out,  "  Any  answer  ?  " 


90  TREASURE   TROVE 

stood  to  wait,  his  impertinent  back  towards  the 
girl,  his  manly  legs  apart.  Annie,  who  knew  him 
as  she  knew  everybody  in  Eastham,  gave  his  cap 
a  tilting  push  over  his  eyes,  and  having  thus  de- 
moralised him,  departed  with  the  missive.  Her 
mistress's  morning  cup  of  tea  was  ready,  and  she 
could  take  the  two  up  together;  it  didn't  matter  if 
Bob  Purley  were  kept  waiting,  the  young  monkey! 

Mrs.  Smart  had  slept  heavily.  The  strain  of  ex- 
pectation being  at  an  end,  her  slumbers  had  been 
dreamless  and  refreshing,  but  a  little  crease  of 
anxiety  drew  her  eyebrows  together  when  she  saw 
the  envelope  by  her  saucer.  She  disliked  telegrams. 
Her  experience  of  them  had  been  small  but  alarm- 
ing, for  as  far  as  she  knew  they  never  communi- 
cated any  but  evil  tidings.  She  opened  the  buff 
envelope  with  misgivings,  therefore,  misgivings 
which  were  speedily  justified. 

"  Mrs.  Lovell  slipped  on  stairs  yesterday,  hurt 
her  back.  Please  come.  Tamsin." 

Emergencies  never  found  Mrs.  Smart  at  a  loss. 
Her  mother  had  been  injured,  was  ill  and  she  was 
required  to  nurse  her.  In  a  minute  she  was  sitting 
up,  self-possessed  and  ready. 

"  A  telegraph  form  Annie,"  she  said,  "  and  the 
ink  out  of  the  dining-room,"  and  then  raising  her 
voice  she  called  to  her  daughter.  Eva,  warm  and 
lazy,  was  drowsily  awaiting  the  summons  to  rise, 
but  she  tumbled  out  of  bed  at  once,  and  still  only 
half  awake  hurried  into  her  mother's  room. 


TREASURE    TROVE  91 

"  It  can't  be  another  burglar,"  she  murmured 
sleepily  as  she  pushed  open  the  door. 

"  Coming  as  soon  as  possible,"  wrote  Mrs.  Smart, 
dropping  each  word  into  its  appointed  space  and 
Eva,  perceiving  that  something  had  really  happened, 
woke  up  sufficiently  to  read  the  summoning  tele- 
gram. 

"  Why  it's  Granny,"  she  said,  drawing  her  pink 
dressing-gown  more  closely  round  her  as  the  cold 
air  from  the  open  front  door  blew  up  the  stairs. 
"  But  you  said  she  couldn't  come  here  for  Christ- 
mas, because  she  was  in  bed  with  a  cold  ?  " 

"  Oh,  but  you  know  your  grandmother,"  said 
Mrs.  Smart,  as  she  handed  telegram  and  money  to 
the  servant.  "  Nothing  would  keep  her  in  bed  for 
very  long.  I  only  hope  she  isn't  badly  hurt.  She's 
seventy  you  know." 

"  I  suppose  you'll  have  to  stay  and  nurse  her  ?  " 

"  Yes,  dearie,  but  it  will  be  all  right,  for  you  can 
look  after  Willy." 

"  I  hate  the  house  when  you  aren't  in  it,  Mother." 

Mrs.  Smart  kissed  her  affectionately.  "  Good 
little  girl !  "  she  said.  "  What  were  you  doing  to- 
day?" 

"  I  was  going  skating  with  the  Johnsons.  Would 
you  rather  that  I  didn't  ?  " 

"  Not  at  all.    Go  and  enjoy  yourself,  dearie." 

She  did  not  think  her  mother  could  be  seriously 
injured  or  surely  Tamsin  would  have  said  so,  and 
she  knew  that  Mr.  Flowerdew,  Mrs.  Johnson's  un- 


92  TREASURE   TROVE 

married  brother,  had  suggested  the  skating  expe- 
dition. Where  her  children  were  concerned  Mrs. 
Smart  saw  all  that  was  to  be  seen. 

"  I  wish  it  weren't  Boxing  Day,  for  of  course 
the  trains  to  Ashwater  will  run  anyhow,  but  I 
shall  ask  Willy  to  come  with  me.  Now  dearie  I'll 
get  up." 

"  And  I'll  scramble  into  my  clothes  and  see  about 
breakfast." 

"  Yes,  do.  There's  the  cold  ham  and  those  bloat- 
ers— see  that  Annie  toasts  them  properly." 

As  Mrs.  Smart  had  feared,  the  train  service  to 
Ashwater  was  suffering  from  Christmas  disloca- 
tion. The  place  was  small  and  lay  in  a  rural  dis- 
trict a  few  miles  from  Eastham.  The  thriving 
suburb  treated  its  Sunday-school  scholars  in  the 
beech  woods  of  Ashwater,  drove  its  beanfeasts  over 
to  Ashwater  Green  and  took  its  Girls'  Friendly  and 
Young  Men's  Christian  on  expeditions  to  the  gorse- 
covered,  heath-grown  common.  The  place,  in  its 
sleepy  stagnant  way,  was  pretty  and  did  very  well 
for  picnics,  its  soil  also  suiting  the  Wyandottes  on 
Mrs.  Lovell's  little  farm.  She  had  begun  with  a 
big  ten-acre  field  by  the  side  of  which  the  Ash  had 
run  merrily  over  its  shallows.  To  this  when  the 
chance  offered  she  had  added  the  meadow  on  the 
other  side  of  the  river  and  quite  lately  had  bought 
a  strip  of  oak  copse  with  a  piece  of  pasture  beyond. 
The  covert  topped  a  little  rise,  sheltering  the  hay- 
field  at  its  side  from  north  and  north-easterly  winds, 


TREASURE   TROVE  93 

and  the  land  sloped  away  to  a  bend  of  the  river. 
The  tiny  farm  was  compact  and  it  was  also  free- 
hold. Mrs.  Lovell  had  rented  until  she  could  buy; 
but  when  the  opportunity  came,  she  had  the  money 
saved  and  ready.  She  believed  in  the  future  of 
Ashwater.  "  When  it  becomes  a  suburb,"  she  had 
said,  "  the  land  about  here  will  be  valuable."  And 
already  a  far-sighted  builder  had  put  up  one  or  two 
of  the  big  bare  red-brick  houses,  which  stockbrok- 
ers and  others  find  themselves  able  to  fancy.  Mrs. 
Lovell,  with  the  yeoman  feeling  for  stability,  called 
them  "  mushrooms,"  and  esteemed  them  not  at  all, 
yet  was  glad  to  see  them  being  built.  They  would 
bring  more  life  into  the  place,  circulate  money,  add 
to  her  careful  profits,  and  she,  despising,  would 
yet  make  use  of  them. 

Old  Meadow  Farm,  as  her  little  holding  was 
called,  was  some  ten  minutes'  walk  from  Ashwater 
Station,  in  a  turning  off  the  main  road,  and  Ash- 
water was  not  more  than  a  dozen  miles  from  East- 
ham.  But  so  great  had  been  the  Christmas  de- 
moralisation of  the  traffic  that  it  was  afternoon 
before  Mrs.  Smart  and  Willy  reached  the  village. 
As  they  turned  off  the  highway  into  the  broad  lane 
which  ran  past  the  farm,  the  former  perceived  that  a 
vehicle  of  some  kind  was  standing  by  the  gate. 

"  I  expect  that  is  Dr.  Hastings'  trap,"  she  said, 
involuntarily  quickening  her  steps.  "  He  is  late  on 
his  rounds." 

"  Oh  well,"  said  Willy  cheerfully,  "  it's  Boxing 


94  TREASURE   TROVE 

Day,  and  I  expect  even  doctors  keep  Christmas. 
Come,  Mater,  don't  run." 

But  Mrs.  Smart  pressed  on  firmly.  "  I  haven't 
seen  the  old  man  for  a  long  time,"  she  said  with 
a  sort  of  determined  optimism,  "  and  if  we  don't 
hurry  he  may  be  gone  when  we  get  there."  She 
would  not  admit  even  to  herself,  that  the  sight  of 
his  carriage  had  made  her  anxious  and  Willy  said 
no  more.  Nor  was  it  long  before  they  came  to  the 
little  green  gate  set  between  hedges  of  hawthorn 
•and  opening  upon  a  stone-flagged  path,  at  the  other 
end  of  which  was  the  green-painted  door  of  the 
farm. 

Mrs.  Smart's  hand  was  first  on  the  latch,  but  her 
fingers  trembled  too  much  to  lift  it.  "  It's  the 
cold,"  she  said  apologetically  as  Willy  pushed  back 
the  gate  and  let  her  through.  "  It  makes  my  fingers 
all  thumbs,"  and  she  hurried  on  to  the  house. 

A  bright  brass  handle  shone  amid  the  green 
paint,  but  as  Mrs.  Smart  touched  it,  the  door  fell 
back  before  her,  and  the  wrinkled  autumn  face  of 
Tamsin  Tinney,  her  mother's  servant  and  friend, 
looked  out  in  greeting. 

"  Ah  do  be  glad  to  see  'ee,"  the  woman  said  with 
a  sort  of  subdued  heartiness,  her  soft  Cornish  voice 
broadening  emotionally  as  she  spoke.  "  You'm 
finely  welcome  though  'tis  a  sad  house  to-day.  But 
'ee've  been  long  on  the  way,  ah've  been  expectin'  of 
?ee  ever  since  ah  sent  the  wire." 

Mrs.  Smart  followed  her  into  the  house  and  they 


TREASURE  JTROVE  95 

paused  all  three  in  the  narrow  ill-lighted  passage. 
"  We  came  as  quickly  as  we  could,"  she  said,  "  but 
we  had  to  change  twice,  the  trains  were  awful." 

"  Aw,  they  do  belong  to  be,  holiday  time." 

"  And  how — how  is  my  mother  ?  " 

The  creases  in  Tamsin's  old-apple  face  deepened. 
She  had  lived  with  Mrs.  Lovell  for  over  twenty 
years  and  had  become  more  friend  than  servant. 
Since  the  accident,  the  nursing  as  well  as  the  work 
of  the  farm  had  devolved  upon  her;  and  having 
been  up  all  night,  she  was  beginning  to  feel  the 
strain.  "  Ah'm  fine  and  anxious  about  she,"  she 
said,  in  tired  and  depressed  tones. 

"Oh,  Tamsin!"  The  note  of  anxiety  in  the 
voice  was  clear  now. 

"  'Twas  Christmas  mornin'  as  her  fell  and  doc- 
tor, he  came  twice  yesterday  and  he've  a-been  twice 
to-day.  But  it  ain't  no  use.  Ah'm  feared  her's  got 
the  call." 

"  Come,  come,  Tamsin,"  said  Willy's  firmly  cheer- 
ful voice  from  behind,  "you  mustn't  frighten  my 
mother." 

"  Oh  why  didn't  you  send  over  yesterday,"  cried 
Mrs.  Smart,  with  the  feeling  that  her  presence  might 
somehow  have  staved  off  disaster. 

"  Christmas,  my  dear.  There  wasn't  nobody  to 
send,  aw  there's  doctor  coming  now." 

A  man's  step  crossed  the  sick-room,  came  out  on 
the  landing  and  began  to  descend  the  stair.  The 
three  faces  upturned  towards  him  glimmered  white 


96  TREASURE   TROVE 

in  the  dark  entry.  His  coming  would  bring  the  last 
word,  the  sentence  of  life  or  death ;  to  all  three  he 
had  changed  from  the  mere  kindly  doctor  of  their 
everyday  knowledge  into  a  man  of  mystery,  one 
heavy  with  strange  knowledge,  something  por- 
tentous. 

Dr.  Hastings  was  a  grey-haired  man,  with  a 
habit  of  staring  so  fixedly  at  people,  that  they  found 
his  gaze  unpleasant.  He  had  been  Mrs.  Lovell's 
doctor  the  forty  odd  years  that  she  had  been  in 
Ashwater,  and  Mrs.  Smart  had  long  since  grown 
accustomed  to  his  fixed  expression.  Dissociating 
herself  from  the  others,  she  advanced  a  step.  "  My 
— my  mother  ?  "  she  said,  with  a  little  break  in  her 
voice.  The  doctor  took  her  affectionately  by  the 
arm  and  led  her  into  the  little  room  to  the  right  of 
the  front  door,  a  room  known  as  the  parlour. 
"Now,  now  my  dear,"  he  said  soothingly,  as  he 
shut  the  door,  leaving  Willy  and  the  old  servant  in 
the  passage.  He  had  known  Minty  Smart  since 
her  childhood,  had  prescribed  for  her  infantile  ail- 
ments and  watched  her  grow  up  into  healthy  wo- 
manhood. She  -was  a  type  of  whom  he,  as  a  doc- 
tor, could  heartily  approve ;  but  one  which  brought 
him  little  profit.  As  he  stood  with  his  round  glassy 
eyes  fixed  staringly  upon  her  anxious  face  and  his 
kind  hand  on  her  arm,  he  wondered  how  to  put 
into  words  what  he  must  say,  he  who  was  so  often 
called  upon  to  utter  sad  and  terrible  things,  ultimate 
truths. 


TREASURE   TROVE  97 

An3  Mrs.  Smart,  though  incredulous,  was  very 
much  afraid.  The  burden  of  her  forty  years  had 
fallen  away,  leaving  her  as  young  and  frightened 
as  she  had  been  all  those  summers  ago,  when  for 
some  trifling  ailment  she  had  been  sent  for  to  in- 
terview this  same  dread  man. 

"  Mrs.  Lovell  has  had  a  bad  fall,"  the  doctor 
said,  his  sympathetic  voice  contrasting  pleasantly 
with  his  staring  eyes,  "  a  very  bad  fall.  She  slipped 
on  the  oilcloth  at  the  head  of  the  stairs — dangerous 
thing,  oilcloth! — and  fell  sideways.  Oh,  not  down 
the  stairs,  no,  but  she  is  a  good  age,  is  she  not?  " 

"  Seventy  last  birthday,"  murmured  Mrs.  Smart. 
She  was  trying  to  thrust  away  the  chill  octopus-like 
fears  which  were  enveloping  her,  trying  not  to  hear 
the  pity  in  her  companion's  tones.  She  wanted  to 
believe  that  it  was  unnecessary,  that  pity. 

"  Three-score  years  and  ten,"  said  Dr.  Hastings 
gravely.  "  Man's  allotted  space  of  time.  My  dear 
Mrs.  Smart — her  allotted  space." 

"  Oh  no,  doctor,  oh  no." 

"  There  are  internal  injuries,"  said  the  inexor- 
able voice. 

"  But  such  a  little  accident — only  a  slip !  "  She 
was  pleading  for  a  reversal  of  that  incomprehen- 
sible, incredible  sentence. 

"  She  has  worked  hard,  and  she  is  old,"  said 
the  doctor.  "A  strong  old  woman,  yes,  but  you 
must  not  hope.  The  body  is  a  delicate  machine — 
very  easily  damaged  beyond  repair." 


98  TREASURE   TROVE 

Mrs.  Smart  stood  looking  before  her,  her  strong 
hands  tightly  gripped  together,  until  the  tears  rose 
in  her  eyes,  fell  over  and  splashed  down  upon  the 
round  walnut  wood  table,  the  table  of  whose  beau- 
tiful grain  her  mother  was  so  proud.  She  pulled 
out  a  large  linen  handkerchief — she  had  no  use  for 
lace  and  muslin  futilities — and  instinctively  at-, 
tempted  to  obliterate  them,  but  she  did  not  know 
that  she  was  doing  so.  The  suddenness  of  the 
blow  had  numbed  her.  She  could  not  understand, 
would  not  until  much  later,  that  her  mother,  un- 
demonstratively  loved  for  six  and  forty  years,  was 
about  to  die. 

She  put  the  large  handkerchief  to  her  eyes  and 
then  turned  a  steady  face  upon  the  doctor;  and  he 
gave  her  further  details,  what  he  knew  and  what 
he  surmised.  He  had  brought  his  partner,  old  Dr. 
Bell,  out  earlier  in  the  day  and  young  Bell  had 
accompanied  them;  but  old  experience  and  young 
knowledge  had  agreed.  The  case  was  hopeless, 
had  been  hopeless  from  the  beginning  and  Mrs. 
Lovell,  do  what  they  would,  and  they  had  tried 
many  things,  was  slowly  sinking. 

Mrs.  Smart  looked  away  from  him  towards  the 
door.  "  Thank  you,  Dr.  Hastings,"  she  said,  "  I 
am  sure  you  have  done  everything  that  you  could. 
Now  I  will  go  to  my  mother." 

He  gave  her  a  few  directions  with  regard  to 
nourishment  and  medicine;  and  she  wondered  why 
he  should  be  able  to  alleviate  and  sustain  where  he 


TREASURE   TROVE  99 

could  not  cure.  She  had  thought  that  doctors  were 
for  the  mending  of  broken  bodies ;  but  it  seemed  as 
if  their  work  was  to  render  easy  the  passing  of 
souls.  She  listened,  however,  listened  as  if  the  pal- 
liatives of  food  and  stimulant  might  have  a  healing 
virtue,  and  when  she  had  heard  all  that  he  could 
tell  her,  went  quickly  out. 

Mrs.  Lovell  slept  in  a  room  at  the  head  of  the 
steep  and  narrow  stairs  and  her  child  could  remem- 
ber her  choice  of  it  on  their  first  coming  to  the  farm, 
could  remember  it  as  a  bare  and  echoing  place  with 
lattice  windows,  to  look  out  of  which  she  had  had 
to  climb  upon  a  chair.  Even  as  a  tiny  child  she  had 
liked  the  view  over  the  sloping  garden  and  down 
the  broad  ten-acre  field  to  where  the  river  shone 
between  a  fringe  of  bushes.  There  had  been  so 
many  things  to  interest  her,  from  the  row  of  bee- 
hives just  below,  to  the  fat  white  ducks  squattering 
in  the  mud  at  the  far  end  of  the  field.  Perhaps  Mrs. 
Lovell,  who  worked  so  hard  and  who  so  loved  her 
work,  had  chosen  the  room  for  the  very  reason 
that  rendered  it  dear  to  her  little  daughter.  Here, 
as  she  lay  in  bed  she  could  hear  the  cows  stir  in 
their  stanchions,  the  pony  in  his  stall;  and  as  she 
dressed  could  see  the  hungry  creatures  looking  out 
of  sty  and  hutch  and  run,  towards  her,  their  provi- 
dence. She  had  enjoyed  feeding  and  caring  for 
this  multitude  of  living  creatures,  and  it  was  noth- 
ing to  her  that  all  these  enchanting  chicks  and  duck- 
lings, calves  and  piglets  were  being  brought  into 


ioo  TREASURE   TROVE 

existence  merely  in  order  to  be  killed  and  eaten. 
She  created,  but  took  no  responsibility  for  the  fate 
of  her  creatures — and  possibly  in  that  was  only  fol- 
lowing a  great  example. 

As  Mrs.  Smart  went  blindly  towards  the  stairs, 
Tamsin,  who  was  gone  into  the  kitchen,  a  big  room 
at  the  back,  which  ran  the  whole  width  of  the  house, 
stepped  to  the  door  and  looked  after  her.  She  loved 
her  mistress  and  she  was  jealous,  fancying  that  she 
who  had  until  now  been  so  much  to  the  old  woman, 
would  be  shut  out  at  the  last.  The  relatives  would 
be  everything,  the  servant  who  had  nursed  and 
tended  her,  would  be  relegated  to  her  proper  place 
— the  kitchen.  And  it  was  true  that  Araminta 
Smart,  going  into  the  presence  of  her  dying  mother, 
had  forgotten  Tamsin,  but  not  of  malice  afore- 
thought. At  that  moment  her  own  children  were 
dim  and  far-off  things,  and  her  husband  had  never 
been.  She  was  back  in  the  past,  in  a  day  of  sick- 
ness when  she  had  been  the  invalid  and  her  some- 
what stern  and  silent  mother  had  relaxed  the 
bonds  of  discipline,  and  played  with  and  amused 
her. 

How  strong  her  mother  had  been,  sitting  up  with 
her  at  night  and  yet  able  to  go  about  her  work 
as  usual  the  following  day.  And  now  it  was  that 
mother  who  had  been  smitten  and  whose  strength 
was  at  an  end. 

Mrs.  Smart  paused  upon  the  threshold  of  the 
bed-chamber  and  when  at  last  she  pushed  back  the 


TREASURE  TROVE  101 

door,  could  speak  in  cheerful  tones.  "  Why  mother 
dear,"  she  said,  "  what  is  this  ?  " 

The  wintry  afternoon  was  closing  in,  but  a  bright 
fire  burned  in  the  grate  and  cast  a  flickering  light 
over  the  old-fashioned  bed.  It  was  from  her  mother 
that  Mrs.  Smart  had  learnt  her  appreciation  of 
feather-beds  and  one,  home-made  and  full,  was  piled 
high  upon  the  four-poster.  Deep  in  it,  deep  and  ly- 
ing very  low,  was  the  woman  who  had  been  so 
strong.  She  lay  perfectly  still,  her  face  once  pleas- 
antly coloured  but  now  pale,  turned  towards  the 
door  and  her  arms  with  their  knotted  hands 
stretched  by  her  side.  As  Mrs.  Smart  entered,  her 
eyelids  lifted  in  a  tired  way  and  she  half  smiled  a 
welcome. 

"That  you,  Minty?"  she  said  languidly,  "I've 
been  expecting  you  this  hour  or  more." 

"The  trains  are  funning  anyhow  to-day, 
mother." 

"  Ah  yes,  I  expect  so."  She  glanced  towards  a 
chair  and  Mrs.  Smart  took  it.  She  had  never  been 
a  demonstrative  daughter  and  now,  though  her 
heart  was  bursting  with  love  and  sorrow,  she  could 
not  show  anything  of  what  she  felt.  She  looked 
across  at  her  mother,  a  careful  smile  upon  her  lips, 
and  thought  how  ill  she  looked,  how  changed.  Mrs. 
Lovell  had  been  rosy  and  dark-eyed  with  a  suf- 
ficiency of  shining  silver  hair,  and  though  a  quiet 
woman  her  manner  had  been  brisk.  Now  the  dark 
eyes  were  sunken  and  the  full  comfortable  face  had 


102  TREASURE.  TROVE) 

grown  thin.  She  seemed  to  'doze  Between^rTer 
words,  and  the  resonance  had  gone  out  of  her' voice. 

"  Well  child/'  she  said  presently,  waking  from 
one  of  these  short  and  frequent  sleeps,  "  so  this  is 
the  end."  She  said  it  simply  and  as  if  announcing 
what  her  daughter  must  have  expected  to  hear,  but 
the  ruth  in  Minty's  heart  broke  its  way  out  for  a 
moment.  She  flung  herself  on  her  knees  by  the  bed, 
caught  the  cold  hand  between  her  warm  ones  and 
sobbed. 

"  Oh  no  Mother,  no,  I  can't  let  you  go." 

"  It  is  a  pity,"  said  the  old  voice  regretfully.  "  If 
it  hadn't  been  for  that  slip  I  was  good  for  another 
ten  years.  Doctor  told  me  so." 

"  Mother,  it  can't  be  true,"  cried  the  daughter 
agonising  at  her  side.  Oh  it  was  the  truth,  she  had 
seen  that  it  was,  but  she  would  not  allow  it. 

"  I  wish  it  weren't,  Minty.  But  this  morning  I 
could  raise  myself  in  bed  and  I  can't  now.  I'm 
going  fast." 

"  Oh  Mother,  Mother  dear." 

The  old  woman  lay  looking  at  the  bowed  head. 
She  regretted  their  parting,  she  knew  that  she  re- 
gretted it,  but  weakness  had  muffled  her  emotions. 
She  could  not  feel  as  her  daughter  was  feeling. 
Indeed  she  wished  that  Minty  would  not  weep  so 
despairingly.  It  was  distressing  and  when  you  are 
very  tired,  very  weak,  you  want  to  be  let  alone. 
"  You've  been  a  good  child,  Minty,  always  a  good 
child,"  she  said  at  last. 


TREASURE    TROVE  103 

"  And  you  the  best  of  mothers,"  sobbed  the  other 
with  remorseful  memory  of  all  the  times  that  she 
had  run  counter  to  her  parent's  wishes.  Mrs. 
Lovell  closed  her  eyes  again  and  while  she  slept 
Minty  struggled  with  herself,  trying  to  regain  her 
self-control. 

"  I've  done  what  I  could,"  said  the  sick  woman 
presently,  her  mind  picking  up  the  thread  of  con- 
versation where  it  had  been  dropped,  "  but  there 
were  things  that  stood  in  the  way;  I  never  spoke 
to  you  about  them,  I  judged  it  wiser  not,  but  I 
dunno,  I  dunno."  Her  voice  trailed  off  into  si- 
lence. Though  it  was  too  late  for  her  to  find  their 
answers,  the  problems  which  had  perplexed  her 
in  the  past  were  still  putting  their  unanswerable 
queries. 

"  I'm  going  somewheres,  Minty." 

"  Why  of  course,"  said  Mrs.  Smart  in  a  shocked 
tone  of  voice,  and  a  faint  smile  flickered  across  the 
face  of  the  older  woman.  She  was  more  intelligent 
than  her  daughter. 

"  I've  never  held  with  the  heaven  and  hell  and 
resurrection  idea,"  she  said  slowly.  "  Dunno  why, 
but  I  just  haven't.  But  you  needn't  worry,  my  dear, 
the  curate  has  been  and  given  me  the  Communion 
so  I'm  all  right,  and  now  I  feel  free  to  have  my 
own  ideas." 

Mrs.  Smart  was  glad  to  hear  that  all  had  been 
done  properly  and  in  order.  She  saw  nothing 
strange  in  this  outward  conformity  and  secret  doubt. 


104  TREASURE   TROVE 

You  must  render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  were 
Caesar's,  but  the  outward  and  visible  sign  was  all 
that  was  necessary. 

"  I'm  glad  Mr.  Shand  has  been,"  she  said,  and 
rose  to  give  the  invalid  some  of  the  chicken  jelly 
which  stood  ready  on  the  inevitable  little  table  by 
the  side  of  the  bed. 

Mrs.  Lovell  took  it  readily.  "  A  nice  young 
feller,"  she  said  tolerantly.  A  farmer's  daughter, 
she  had  never  pretended  to  any  great  nicety  of 
speech,  indeed,  pretence  of  any  kind  was  foreign 
to  her  nature.  She  had  lived  to  bargain  and  to  save, 
she  had  lived  for  herself  and  for  those  belonging 
to  her,  and  now  her  clean  austere  life  had  run  its 
course.  She  did  not  think  she  had  anything  with 
which  to  reproach  herself,  anything  to  regret.  "  I've 
done  my  best  here,"  she  said,  "  so  I  expect  I'm 
going  somewheres  pleasant.  But  the  where  don't 
bother  me,  though  if  it  had  been  heaven  it  would 
have  done." 

"  Oh — heaven ! "  said  Mrs.  Smart,  with  a  vision 
of  heavenly  choirs,  seas  of  glass  and  sapphire 
thrones. 

"  I've  a  prejudice  against  heaven,"  said  Mrs. 
Lovell  and  fell  quietly  asleep. 

But  her  words  had  pushed  Mrs.  Smart's  thoughts 
into  unwonted  channels;  and  when  after  a  short 
time,  the  tired  lids  rose  over  the  dark  eyes,  the 
younger  woman  leant  towards  her  eagerly. 

"  You  will  see  father,"  she  said.     Unimaginative 


TREASURE   TROVE  105 

as  she  was,  she  could  yet  see  her  mother  falling 
asleep  here  to  wake  in  the  "  somewheres  pleasant," 
the  place  to  which  her  father  was  already  gone.  The 
prospect  did  not  destroy  her  sense  of  impending 
loss,  but  it  gave  to  the  life  after  death  a  sudden 
nearness  and  reality. 

Mrs.  Lovell  moved  her  head  restlessly  and  her 
daughter  noticed  that  her  hair  had  lost  its  gloss, 
what  had  been  silver  was  now  merely  white. 

"  Maybe,"  said  the  sick  woman,  but  her  tones 
were  unenthusiastic,  "  maybe  and  maybe  not.  He's 
ahead  of  me  by  over  thirty  years  and  he'll  have  had 
time  to  forget.  I've  often  thought  that,  Minty. 
Every  birthday  I've  said  to  myself :  '  Another  year, 
more  and  more  time  for  him  to  forget.' ' 

"  You  don't  want  him  to  remember  ?  "  On  her 
death-bed  Mrs.  Lovell  was  breaking  the  long  silence 
of  her  life,  and  what  she  said  made  her  seem  a 
stranger  to  her  nearest  and  dearest. 

"  I  dunno  as  I  do.  You  see,  my  dear,  well  we 
was  more  mated  than  matched.  I  thought  it  a 
fine  thing,  me  being  only  a  farmer's  daughter,  to 
marry  a  lawyer  and  at  first  it  answered  all  right, 
but  afterwards — well !  " 

"  I  had  no  idea." 

"  Of  course  not.  I  wasn't  telling  you,  and  chil- 
dren are  blind  enough  about  some  things,  take  'em 
for  granted  I  suppose." 

"And  father?" 

"  He's  gone  my  dear  and  he's  been  gone  a  long 


io6  TREASURE   TROVE 

time ;  happen  he's  found  the  right  woman  where 
he  is." 

"  But  there's  to  be  no  marrying." 

"  Tut,  men'ull  be  men  and  women  women  as  long 
as  they've  any  kind  of  life.  You  want  to  see  Dick 
again  and  I " 

Once  more  the  old  voice  faded  and  only  the 
busy  thoughts  ran  to  and  fro  in  the  dying  brain. 
Ah,  the  years  between!  For  a  little  time  she  was 
back,  a  girl  under  her  mother's  wing,  and  Tom 
Whipple,  a  neighbour's  son,  was  looking  through 
the  dairy  window  at  her  as  she  churned,  she  in  her 
clean  lilac  cotton  and  he  very  spruce  and  spick  and 
span.  The  light  in  his  eyes  and  the  tones  of  his 
voice,  she  could  see  and  hear  them,  though  the  mists 
of  fifty  years  hung  between  then  and  now.  They 
had  been  sweethearts,  she  and  Tom,  until  the 
"  gentleman  "  had  come  between ;  and  she  would 
like,  in  this  pleasant  country  whither  she  was  jour- 
neying to  meet  Tom  again,  Tom  grown  old  or  Tom 
still  young,  it  hardly  mattered  which.  Life  had 
taught  her  that  instincts  are  given  us  for  our  guid- 
ance; but  what  would  be  the  use  of  knowledge  if 
she  were  never  to  use  hers,  never  to  see  Tom  again  ? 

She  sighed  and  began  to  speak  of  what  she  was 
about  to  leave.  "  The  farm  was  bought  and  paid 
for  in  your  name,  Minty — to  save  the  death  duties 
you  know,  and  that  is  why  I've  insisted  on  paying 
you  the  few  shillings  a  year  rent — but  unless  you 
thought  of  settling  here,  I'd  like  Tamsin  to  have  it." 


TREASURE    TROVE  107 

"Tamsin?" 

"  She  knows  how  to  make  it  pay.  I've  given  her 
a  share  in  the  profits  this  many  a  year  and  she'd 
do  well  by  it.  Let  her  pay  you  a  bit  of  rent,  not  too 
much,  and  work  it  for  the  next  few  years.  She'd 
save  against  her  old  age  and  you  don't  want  it, 
you've  enough." 

"  Oh  I've  enough,  yes."  Like  a  flash  of  vari- 
coloured light  came  the  thought  of  her  treasure 
trove.  "  And  she's  been  a  good  servant  to  you. 
Very  well  then,  Mother." 

"  Thank  you,  my  dear,  that  takes  a  load  off  my 
mind,  for  if  you'd  been  agin  it  you'd  have  been  in 
your  right.  But  you're  like  me  in  your  dealings, 
fair  and  honest,  though  as  far  as  looks  go,  you  are 
a  bit  like  your  father  too." 

"Me?"  said  Minty  in  surprise.  "Why  I'm 
always  said  to  be  the  image  of  you." 

"  There's  a  something  about  the  shape  of  your 
head,  Willy  has  it  too,  that  reminds  me  of  your 
father.  No,  now  Eva's  me  if  you  like,  just  what 
I  was  as  a  girl."  She  paused.  "  Now  my  dear, 
send  Tamsin  up  to  me  for  a  little.  I  want  to  tell 
her  I've  arranged  with  you." 

Mrs.  Smart  found  that  Tamsin  had  been  putting 
her  restlessness  to  some  use,  and  had  prepared  a 
meal  for  the  new-comers.  She  was  bustling  about 
the  big  brick-floored  kitchen,  but  when  told  she 
could  go  up  to  Mrs.  Lovell,  she  went  quickly,  leav- 
ing everything  as  it  was.  After  all,  the  relatives 


io8  TREASURE   TROVE 

did  not  mean  to  keep  her  away  from  her  mistress, 
they  had  only  kindly  feelings  toward  her,  and  her 
own  friendliness,  the  friendliness  which  had  grown 
steadily  through  twenty  years  of  intercourse,  rushed 
back  into  her  heart.  She  was  glad,  as  she  ran 
stumbling  up  the  stairs,  that  she  had  laid  the  table. 
Doubtless  Mrs.  Smart  would  be  thankful  for  a  cup 
of  tea;  and  when  she  heard  what  her  mistress  had 
to  tell  she  was  still  more  glad. 

She  was  absent  for  half  an  hour  and  when  she 
came  back  tears  were  coursing  down  the  channels 
in  her  old-apple  face,  the  channels  which  time  had 
grooved  for  them. 

"  The  mistress  wants  'ee  to  go  back,  you  and  the 
young  master,"  she  said. 

Willy,  though  a  kind  and  sympathetic  boy,  was 
feeling  very  much  out  of  his  element.  While  his 
mother  had  been  upstairs  he  had  lounged  on  the 
old  settle  by  the  fire,  and  tried  to  keep  his  thoughts 
attuned  to  the  sorrowful  gravity  of  the  occasion, 
He  would  be  sorry  to  say  good-bye  to  his  grand- 
mother, but  he  was  young  and  full  of  his  own 
concerns.  He  had  meant  to  go  skating  on  the  big 
flooded  meadow  at  Eastborough  and  though  he 
would  have  given  up  more  than  that  to  oblige  his 
mother,  his  thoughts  kept  straying  from  the  sombre 
and  silent  kitchen  to  his  idle  skates.  When  Mrs. 
Smart  went  back  to  the  sick-room  he  followed  slowly, 
but  the  warm  blood  in  his  veins  protested  against 
what  awaited  him.  Never  before  in  all  his  three 


TREASURE    TROVE  109 

and  twenty  years  had  he  been  brought  into  contact 
with  death.  His  father  had  slipped  out  of  life 
when  he  was  at  school;  and  his  mother  had  spared 
him  all  sight  and  sound  of  those  last  offices  we 
render  to  the  dead.  Now  however,  she  was  think- 
ing of  herself  rather  than  him.  Her  mother's  death 
would  be  her  loss,  it  would  be  nothing  to  the  grand- 
child, while  his  strength  would  be  something  upon 
which  she  could  lean.  Mrs.  Smart  was  making  a 
tacit  claim  upon  the  manhood  of  her  son  and  he 
had  not  yet  understood ;  but  as  he  walked  after  her 
into  his  grandmother's  room  and  saw  the  pallid 
face  upon  the  pillow,  the  face  which  had  always 
had  a  smile  and  a  kindly  word  for  him,  the  real 
solemnity  of  the  strange  thing  which  was  hap- 
pening, gripped  his  mind. 

"  I'm  very  tired,"  the  old  woman  said.  "  Give 
me  something,  Minty,"  and  Mrs.  Smart  raising  her 
head,  administered  some  stimulating  nourishment. 
"  Ah,  that's  better.  I  was  nearly  forgetting  what  I 
had  for  you."  She  turned  her  head  and  looked  up 
at  the  wardrobe.  "  There's  a  box  on  the  top,"  she 
said,  and  Willy,  who  was  tall,  lifted  down  an  old 
brass-bound  desk.  "  It's  my  savings,"  she  con- 
tinued, in  the  low  voice  which  was  gradually  sink- 
ing into  a  murmur,  "  and  all  things  considered  it's 
a  tidy  penny.  It's  for  you,  Minty,  but  open  it  when 
you  are  by  yourself,  for  there's  things  in  it  as  you 
may  not  want  other  people  to  see.  The  key's  round 
my  neck."  She  pulled  feebly  at  her  nightgown  and 


no  TREASURE   TROVE 

Mrs.  Smart  leaning  over  her,  unbuttoned  it  at  the 
neck,  while  Willy  wondered  whether  dying  people 
only  talked  of  money  and  the  disposition  of  prop- 
erty. What  a  hold  life  had  on  them,  even  on  old 
women  like  his  grandmother.  He  felt  that  if  he 
were  so  unfortunate  as  to  be  dying,  he  would  be 
too  angry  with  fate  to  care  very  much  what  became 
of  his  belongings,  but  his  grandmother  was  evi- 
dently resigned.  Did  resignation  then  come  with 
age?  To  be  resigned,  what  a  thought!  To  be 
willing  to  give  up  going  hither  and  yon,  to  be  will- 
ing to  lie  still !  He  shivered  slightly.  How  terrible, 
how  horrible  was  Death. 

On  Mrs.  Lovell's  withered  neck,  from  a  piece  of 
tape  hung  a  foreign-looking  brass  key.  Mrs. 
Smart  lifted  it  gently  away  and  put  it  in  her  pocket ; 
and  as  she  did  so,  thanked  her  mother  with  a  kiss. 
Later  on  she  would  be  glad  of  the  money,  but  at 
the  moment  her  mind  was  full  of  mo-re  emotional 
matters.  What  does  money  matter,  when  it  is  life 
that  is  in  question  ? 

"  Move  the  candle  so  as  I  can  see  you,  Minty," 
said  the  old  woman,  and  the  other  pulled  her  chair 
forward.  It  was  of  horsehair  with  wooden  arms 
and  had  always  stood  by  the  head  of  Mrs.  Lovell's 
bed.  Minty  wheeled  it  down  the  room  until  her 
mother's  eyes  could  rest  upon  it  as  she  lay,  and 
then  seated  herself  with  the  brass-bound  desk  in 
her  lap.  The  room  was  dimly  lighted  by  a  single 
candle,  and  on  the  further  wall  the  shadow  of  the 


TREASURE    TROVE  in 

old  four-poster  grew  monstrous,  as  a  draught  flut- 
tered the  tiny  flame.  The  light  fell  full  upon  Mrs. 
Smart's  face  and  buxom  figure,  upon  her  healthy 
colour,  and  tear-dimmed  eyes.  The  dying  woman, 
silent  now  because  she  had  said  her  say,  and  be- 
cause she  was  very  tired,  lay  looking  at  her,  at  this 
satisfactory  daughter,  this  child  who  had  never 
caused  her  a  moment's  anxiety.  She  was  sorry  to 
be  going  on,  to  be  leaving  her.  She  thought  of 
the  baby  that  had  been,  the  child,  the  winsome  girl, 
and  realised  that  she  was  leaving  more  than  the 
farm  behind. 

Tamsin  who,  doubt  dispelled,  had  followed  Minty 
and  her  son  into  the  sick-room,  rose  to  make  up  the 
fire.  She  and  Willy  were  sitting  in  the  shadow  of 
the  great  bed,  listening  to  the  quick  voice  of  the 
little  American  clock.  Except  for  that,  a  hush  had 
fallen  upon  the  room  and  its  inmates,  the  hush 
of  a  great  expectancy. 

Mrs.  Lovell  let  her  eyelids  droop.  She  was 
growing  sleepy  and  what  did  it  matter  if  they 
closed?  Already  Minty's  face  was  becoming 
shadowy,  but  it  did  not  matter.  It  would  never 
matter  any  more. 

Suddenly  Tamsin  laid  her  hand  on  Willy  Smart's 
arm.  "  Take  your  mother  away,"  she  whispered, 
and  he  rose  bewildered  and  uncertain.  "  Take  her 
away  and  be  good  to  her,"  and  at  last  he  under- 
stood. 

Mrs.  Smart  let  him  lead  her  out  of  the  room. 


ii2  TREASURE   TROVE 

She  went  leaning  on  his  arm,  but  unconscious  of 
the  tender  support,  unconscious  of  his  presence. 

In  the  kitchen  the  fire  was  burning  brightly, 
casting  a  fine  glow  upon  the  freshly  ruddled  bricks, 
and  shining  on  the  time-polished  stools  and  settle. 
Mrs.  Smart's  eye  rested  instinctively  upon  the  little 
stool  that  had  been  hers  and  as  instinctively  her  gaze 
travelled  on  to  the  dresser.  There  in  its  accus- 
tomed corner  stood  the  cracked  yellow  bowl  with 
the  blue  band,  the  bowl  which  as  a  little  girl  she 
had  fetched  evening  after  evening  for  her  mother 
to  fill.  Her  mother!  In  a  moment  the  surge  of 
old  memories  had  broken  the  ice  about  her  heart 
and  she  was  sobbing  in  Willy's  arms. 


CHAPTER  VII 

WHEN  called  upon  to  decide  where  her  mother 
should  be  buried  Mrs.  Smart  had  hesitated.  Her 
father  lay  in  Ashwater  churchyard;  but  from  what 
Mrs.  Lovell  had  said,  it  was  more  than  dubious 
whether  she  would  like  her  resting-place  to  be 
beside  him.  She  had  not  given  any  instructions, 
she  had  left  her  daughter  to  deal  with  the  matter; 
and  Minty,  shaken  by  her  sudden,  unexpected,  poig- 
nant death,  and  for  once  in  her  life  uncertain,  had 
had  the  sharp  edge  taken  off  her  grief  by  the  neces- 
sity for  this  troublesome  consideration.  In  the  end 
she  had  decided  that  it  could  not  make  any  differ- 
ence. Inasmuch  as  she  was  their  daughter  they 
had  been  one  flesh,  and  in  the  flesh  they  might  sleep 
together.  If  when  the  resurrection  came  they  felt 
any  annoyance  at  finding  themselves  side  by  side — 
well,  the  resurrection  was  probably  a  long  way  off, 
and  they  would  have  had  time  by  then  to  adjust 
their  differences,  or  if  they  were  insuperable,  to 
make  other  arrangements.  Minty  did  not  think, 
even  if  they  rose  together,  that  it  would  be  neces- 
sary for  them  to  remain  together.  Moreovef,  and 
this  clinched  the  matter,  as  the  grave  was  theirs, 
paid  for  with  their  money,  it  was  only  fitting  that 
they  should  make  use  of  it. 

n3 


ii4  TREASURE   TROVE 

The  long-  frost  broke  upon  New  Year's  eve  and 
Mrs.  Lovell  was  laid  beside  her  husband  on  a  day 
full  of  cold  sunshine,  when  the  birds  released 
from  their  fears  of  starvation  were  trilling  out  a 
recollection  of  last  year's  mating  songs.  The  little 
churchyard  in  the  hollow,  with  its  innumerable  in- 
scribed slabs,  this  mortal  forlornly  protesting  its 
immortality,  lay  bathed  in  light;  and  Willy  Smart, 
listening  to  the  service,  thinking  of  the  dead  woman, 
and  of  that  chain  of  life  the  beginning  of  which  was 
lost  in  the  darkness  of  far-off  yesterdays,  the  final 
link  of  which,  so  far,  was  himself,  glanced  at  his 
mother,  his  poor  grieving  mother,  and  saw  that  she 
was  older  than  he  had  thought.  In  her  mourning 
dress,  the  red  of  her  cheeks  deepened  by  wind  and 
weeping,  her  tread  heavy  and  springless,  she  seemed 
to  have  left  behind  the  authoritativeness  of  her 
middle-age  and  to  be  leaning  on  his  youth  and 
strength.  Hitherto  her  will  had  been  his  law,  but 
the  man  was  pushing  his  way  out  of  the  cocoon  of 
youth.  It  is  not  by  thinking  that  growth  comes, 
but  through  experience ;  and  one  eventful  night  had 
added  a  cubit  to  Willy's  stature.  As  he  led  his 
mother  away  after  that  first  rattle  of  earth  upon  the 
coffin  lid,  his  own  young  spirit  was  a-shudder  at 
the  inexorableness  of  death  and  yet  he  could  begin 
to  talk ;  and  as  the  new-made  grave  receded  and  the 
everyday  sweetnesses  of  home  drew  nearer,  could 
talk  with  a  growing  cheerfulness. 

During  the  days   that  intervened  between   her 


TREASURE   TROVE  115 

mother's  death  and  burial,  Mrs.  Smart  had  felt  but 
little  curiosity  respecting  the  contents  of  the  brass- 
bound  desk.  The  turning  of  a  key  would  have 
put  her  in  possession  of  the  money,  would  have 
made  her  wise  concerning  those  things  she  "  might 
rather  other  people  did  not  see";  but  the  key  re- 
mained in  her  pocket,  the  desk  lay  unopened  in  a 
drawer.  For  what  were  legacies  to  her,  when  only 
a  few  yards  away  the  giver  of  them  lay  cold  and 
stiff,  when  by  stepping  across  the  little  landing  she 
could  still  look  upon  the  dear  dead  face? 

But  once  at  home  again,  with  the  blinds  up,  the 
sunshine  pouring  in  and  Eva's  face,  Eva's  sweet 
June-rose  face,  opposite  her  across  the  luncheon 
table,  and  the  desk  took  on  a  new  significance.  It 
had  been  her  mother's  last  gift,  a  casket  that  dead 
fingers  had  filled  and  locked  for  her,  a  thing  un- 
speakably precious  as  containing  that  mother's  last 
message. 

She  shut  herself  into  her  bedchamber  that  after- 
noon with  the  feeling  that  after  days  of  stress  and 
nights  of  sorrow,  here  peace  awaited  her.  The  fa- 
miliar hideousness  of  the  room  with  its  big  four- 
poster,  its  cheap  flowered  paper,  its  imitation  lace 
curtains,  was  soothing  to  its  owner.  For  many 
years  these  pieces  of  furniture  had  been  part  of  her 
daily  life;  she  had  bought  them  with  money  that 
she  had  saved,  and  each  represented  a  triumph 
either  of  bargaining  or  self-denial.  She  looked 
about  her  with  an  appraising  eye.  Eva  had  cleaned 


ii6  TREASURE    TROVE 

and  rubbed  and  polished,  and  the  place  had  a  cleanly 
air  which  to  Mrs.  Smart  was  delightful.  It  cheered 
her  as  nothing  else  could  have  done.  The  door 
handle  shone,  the  grate  shone,  the  furniture  shone, 
each  fold  of  the  curtains  had  been  calculated,  the 
pictures  hung  exactly  straight,  everything  was  as 
she  liked  to  see  it. 

Mrs.  Smart  thought  she  would  take  the  oppor- 
tunity of  being  by  herself  to  examine  her  mother's 
gift;  and  that  she  might  be  secure  from  interrup- 
tion, she  turned  the  key  in  the  bedroom  lock.  The 
similarity  of  the  action  carried  her  thoughts  back 
to  the  day  on  which  she  had  discovered  the  jewels, 
and  thus  reminded  of  their  existence  she  went  across 
to  the  mantel-shelf.  The  treasure !  All  thought  of 
it  had  been  washed  out  of  her  mind  by  the  waters 
of  sorrow ;  but  now  that  she  remembered,  she  would 
assure  herself  of  its  safety,  for  who  knew  what 
might  not  have  happened  during  her  absence.  Push- 
ing up  the  roof  of  the  Swiss  chalet,  therefore,  she 
lifted  out  her  husband's  letters  and  laid  a  sensitive 
finger  upon  the  other  packet.  It  was  just  as  she 
had  left  it,  cotton-wool  with  a  concealed  heart  of 
vari-coloured  fire,  cotton  wool  that  fitted  into  and 
filled  the  old  envelope.  "  Letters  from  the  chil- 
dren," she  murmured,  and  seeing  in  the  inscription 
something  amusing,  smiled  to  herself.  She  had 
outwitted  the  burglar  and  that  alone  was  a  hum- 
orous thing  to  have  done,  but  to  have  done  it  with 
these  simple  materials, — this  worn  envelope,  this 


TREASURE   TROVE  117 

commonplace  inscription,  this  foolishly  fragile  box! 
It  was  really  a  sort  of  joke,  one  which  she  could 
enjoy  by  herself,  one  of  those  funny,  vulgar  stories 
which  she  knew  and  laughed  at  when  alone,  but 
which  she  never,  never  thought  of  relating  to  her 
children. 

It  was  her  habit  of  an  afternoon  to  push  aside 
the  feather  bed — that  bed  which  she  shook  up  every 
morning  of  her  healthy  life,  and  stretch  herself 
upon  the  mattress.  There  she  slept  or  rested  for 
some  half-hour  or  so,  rising  refreshed  and  ready 
for  further  exertion.  She  now  made  room  for  her- 
self under  the  eider-down,  and  putting  the  precious 
desk  on  an  adjacent  chair,  prepared  to  investigate 
its  contents.  It  was  of  walnut  wood,  a  costly  toy, 
but  strong  as  well  as  handsome.  As  far  back  as 
she  could  remember  she  had  known  this  desk  with 
its  shining  bands  of  metal,  its  beautiful  dark  grained 
wood.  The  sight  of  it  had  always  brought  back 
her  London  home,  for  it  had  stood  in  a  room  on 
the  ground  floor,  its  bright  lock  on  a  level  with 
childish  eyes,  its  rounded  top  rising  above  them. 
In  those  days  it  had  contained  paper  and  other 
treasures;  paper,  an  occasional  sheet  of  which  had 
been  given  her  to  scribble  on,  and  treasures  of 
mother-o'-pearl  which,  when  she  was  very  good,  had 
been  displayed  to  her  wondering  eyes.  Once  more 
it  contained  a  treasure,  a  treasure  which  as  a  re- 
ward was  to  be  given  her.  The  key  turned  as  if 
the  old  and  intricate  lock  had  been  lately  oiled,  but 


ii8  TREASURE   TROVE 

instead  of  the  mother-o'-pearl  fishes  and  bobbins 
which  she  had  somehow  vaguely  expected  to  see, 
the  desk  held  two  well-filled  envelopes,  them  and 
nothing  more.  They  lay,  a  white  patch  on  the  blue 
velvet  of  the  interior,  the  top  one  open  and  bare  of 
writing,  the  other  carefully  sealed  and  directed. 

Mrs.  Smart  picked  up  the  large  open  envelope, 
and  it  crackled  under  her  fingers.  Its  contents  were 
quite  evidently  bank  notes.  As  she  took  it  she  no- 
ticed the  direction  of  the  other : — "  To  my  daugh- 
ter, Mrs.  Smart.  To  be  opened  after  my  death,"  and 
paused,  wondering  what  secret  lay  hidden  in  its  dis- 
creet folds.  But  the  money  was,  at  least  for  the 
moment,  of  greater  interest  to  her;  and  her  hands 
trembled  a  little,  as  she  pulled  a  thick  wad  out  of 
the  envelope.  She  had  been  feeling  tired.  Her 
back  had  ached,  her  eyes  had  ached,  her  head  had 
ached,  but  these  things  were  forgotten  as  she  spread 
out  the  notes  and  began  to  count  them. 

That  on  the  top  was  for  a  hundred  pounds !  She 
had  never  before  seen  such  a  thing,  never  before 
held  so  much  money  in  her  hand.  With  quickened 
interest  she  turned  back  the  first  piece  of  flimsy 
paper,  only,  however,  to  find  under  it  another  pre- 
cisely similar.  Two  hundred  pounds!  She  had 
fancied  her  mother  might  leave  her  as  much  as  that, 
as  much  but  hardly  more.  It  was  not  so  very  long 
since  the  old  lady  had  bought  that  slip  of  copse  and 
the  twenty-acre  field.  To  do  so  had  taxed  her  re- 
sources to  the  utmost,  or  Minty  thought  it  had,  and 


TREASURE   TROVE  119 

yet  beneath  these  two  bank  notes  were  others,  sev- 
eral others.  She  counted  them  hurriedly,  noting 
their  value  as  she  did  so.  Ten  notes  and  each  for 
a  hundred  pounds!  Hardly  able  to  believe  in  her 
good  fortune  she  sat  up  and  counted  the  notes 
again.  But  she  had  not  made  a  mistake.  In  spite 
of  that  twenty-acre  field,  of  trade  depression  and 
hard  times,  her  mother  had  left  her  a  thousand 
pounds !  Her  eyes  filled  with  sudden  tears  for  she 
knew,  none  better,  all  that  had  gone  to  the  saving 
of  those  ten  notes.  She  thought  of  the  constant 
self-denial,  no  fire  until  the  weather  was  bitter,  no 
luxuries,  never  a  new  frock  or  bonnet  or  armchair, 
no  change,  no  amusement ;  but  seven  working  days 
in  the  week,  and  to  each  hour  its  allotted  task.  The 
old  bones  must  have  cried  for  rest,  the  old  feet  must 
have  ached  with  age,  and  yet  there  had  been  no 
pause.  Mrs.  Lovell,  sacrificing  her  bodily  comfort 
that  she  might  add  shilling  to  shilling  and  pound  to 
pound,  had  found  a  pleasure  in  so  doing.  She  had 
hoarded  with  silent  undemonstrative  zeal,  had  kept 
it  a  secret  until  her  death,  and  given  without  ex- 
pectation of  thanks.  Minty  herself  would  have 
done  as  much  for  Willy  or  Eva,  and  would  have 
done  it  in  the  same  way.  Her  heart  ached  afresh, 
for  truly  she  and  her  mother  had  been  of  the  same 
flesh  and  blood;  and  now  she  might  never  tell  her 
how  well  she  understood. 

She  lay  back  on  her  pillow,  the  notes  between 
her  fingers  and  the  difficult  tears  of  middle  age  on 


120  TREASURE   TROVE 

her  cheeks.  Her  mother  had  never  failed  her.  She 
had  gone  to  her  in  every  difficulty,  had  gone  as  a 
matter  of  course  and  had  accepted,  as  children  do, 
whatever  came  from  the  parental  hand.  And  now  ? 
A  sob  broke  the  silence  of  the  room.  The  heart  is 
for  ever  young,  and  the  Minty  who  mourned  her 
mother  and  cried  after  the  protective,  governing 
hand,  was  Minty  the  child. 

The  Smarts  were,  for  their  position,  fairly  well- 
to-do.  The  house  they  lived  in  was  their  own,  Mrs. 
Smart  had  an  income  of  four  hundred  a  year  and 
the  farm,  fifty  acres  of  freehold  land,  belonged  to 
her.  It  is  true  that  this  latter  paid  only  a  trifle  of 
rent,  but  thanks  to  the  army  of  red-coated  houses 
which  was  invading  Surrey,  land  was  going  up  in 
value.  Mrs.  Smart  having  no  use  for  the  place, 
until  it  should  be  worth  selling,  was  content  that 
Tamsin  Tinney  should  farm  it ;  but  she  looked  for- 
ward to  a  time  when  the  "  Old  Meadow  Estate  " 
should  be  cut  up  into  lots  and  leased  for  building. 
Ground  rents  were  her  ambition,  ground  rents 
which  should  enrich  her  children's  children;  and  as 
she  twisted  the  notes  between  her  fingers,  it  was  of 
land  and  houses  that  she  thought.  But  she  could 
not  build,  she  did  not  wish  to  buy,  and  a  mortgage 
therefore  was  what  remained  to  her.  She  made  up 
her  mind  that  the  thousand  pounds  should  be  in- 
vested in  a  safe  four-per-cent  mortgage,  and  that 
she  would  see  her  lawyer  on  the  subject  without 
loss  of  time. 


TREASURE    TROVE  121 

The  problem  of  what  to  do  with  her  legacy  hav- 
ing been  satisfactorily  solved,  the  question  of  an- 
other asset  came  up  for  consideration.  The  Swiss 
chalet,  pretty  dusty  bit  of  rubbish,  stood  sideways 
on  the  mantel-shelf,  its  lid  raised,  its  contents  ex- 
posed to  view.  There  was  no  longer  any  reason 
for  her  to  hide  her  find  in  the  old  envelope;  it 
would  on  the  whole,  thought  Minty  shrewdly,  be 
safer  to  lock  it  away  in  her  mother's  desk ;  for  the 
contents  of  that  little  heavy  box  having  been  known 
to  the  dead  woman  only,  the  jewellery  for  all  that 
anybody  knew,  might  have  been  there  when  she  re- 
ceived it. 

If  the  question  ever  arose,  her  mother's  desk 
would  supply  her  with  an  explanation. 

Pulling  the  cotton  wool  out  of  the  envelope,  she 
carefully  unfolded  it.  The  pieces  of  jewellery, 
nested  as  she  had  left  them,  flashed  up  at  her,  the 
tiara,  collar,  bow-brooch,  the  deep  flame  of  the  green 
opal,  the  gleam  of  emeralds,  the  wine-dark  shadow 
of  the  amethyst.  For  a  moment  she  lost  herself  in 
simple  admiration,  and  then  one  by  one,  she  laid 
the  scintillating  ornaments  on  the  worn  blue  velvet 
of  the  old  desk.  Tharp  had  told  her  that  they  were 
worth  a  great  deal  of  money  and  her  first,  fairly 
modest,  estimate  of  them  had  been  amended.  She 
even  wondered  whether  they  might  not  prove  as 
valuable  as  the  wad  of  flimsy  paper  she  still  held 
in  her  left  hand.  But  that  of  course  was  absurd. 
Jewels  worth  a  thousand  pounds!  Surely  no  one 


122  TREASURE   TROVE 

would  be  so  foolish  as  to  lock  up  a  thousand  pounds 
of  capital  in  a  few  bright  and  pretty  stones. 

On  the  dark  velvet  the  diamonds  sparkled  like 
dew-drops  cupped  in  a  poppy  leaf  and  Mrs.  Smart, 
bending  over  them,  suddenly  became  aware  of  the 
other  envelope,  the  envelope  sealed  and  directed  to 
herself,  which,  in  the  excitement  of  counting  the 
notes,  she  had  forgotten. 

"  To  my  daughter,  Mrs.  Smart.  To  be  opened 
after  my  death." 

She  disengaged  it  from  the  crowding  jewels  and 
without  apprehension  slit  open  the  flap.  Within 
was  a  single  sheet  of  paper,  closely  covered  with 
Mrs.  Lovell's  rather  laboured  writing;  and  at  the 
sight  of  it,  Minty  began  to  wonder  what  it  was  that 
her  mother  had  thought  of  sufficient  importance  to 
communicate  in  this  manner.  It  occurred  to  her 
that  after  all  she  knew  very  little  about  either  her 
father  or  her  mother,  and  that  it  was  surely  unusual 
to  be  entirely  without  relatives.  Hitherto  she  had 
taken  things  for  granted,  had  supposed  an  answer 
to  the  whys  and  whens  of  her  incurious  mind,  but 
the  crabbed  handwriting  made  her  suddenly  afraid. 
Mrs.  Lovell  seldom  put  pen  to  paper,  so  seldom  that 
her  daughter  felt  only  a  serious  matter  could  have 
induced  her  to  write  this  letter,  this  letter  which 
was  to  tell,  after  her  death,  what  when  living  she 
had  withheld.  Slowly  and  almost  unwillingly,  she 
unfolded  the  paper  and  began  to  read. 


TREASURE   TROVE  123 

OLDMEADOW  FARM,  ASHWATER. 
Dear  Minty, 

I'm  writing  this  because  perhaps  you've  a  right 
to  know,  seeing  as  after  all  he  was  your  father. 

He  was  a  good  match  for  me,  being  a  lawyer, 
and  me  a  farmer's  daughter;  but  it's  nothing  to  do 
with  that,  though  like  should  marry  like  and  a  lady 
might  have  kept  him  straight. 

Jim  was  a  lawyer  who  took  other  people's  money, 
money  as  he'd  been  trusted  with,  and  spent  it.  He 
took  it  to  speculate  with  and  he  meant  to  put  it  back ; 
he  was  one  as  always  meant  all  right.  But  he  was 
found  out  before  he  had  done  so  and  sent  to  prison. 

My  father  lent  me  the  money  to  start  the  little 
farm  and  I  paid  it  back  before  he  died. 

When  Jim  was  let  out  he  came  back  to  me;  and 
being  married,  we  made  the  best  of  it  till  he  died. 

I  thought  perhaps,  him  being  a  gentleman  and 
you  hard  to  please,  as  I'd  better  let  you  have  your 
choice;  and  that  was  why  when  you  left  school,  I 
let  the  fishing.  I  had  hoped  one  of  the  lads  about 
would  have  suited  you,  but  you  never  wanted  any 
but  Richard  and  he  was  straight,  though  he  was  a 
gentleman. 

I  think  that's  all.  I  was  sorry  for  your  father 
and  I  did  my  duty  by  him.  I  did  what  I  could ;  but 
forgiving  never  came  easy  to  none  of  us. 

Your  loving  mother, 

SARAH  LOVELL. 


124  TREASURE   TROVE 

Mrs.  Smart  dropped  the  letter  into  her  lap.  "  Poor 
father,"  she  said,  and  as  the  puzzle  of  the  past  un- 
ravelled itself  before  her  pitiful  gaze,  she  said  it 
again.  "  My  poor,  poor  father." 

She  did  not  pity  the  proud  woman  disgraced  by 
another's  weak  incompetence,  embittered  because 
she  could  not  forgive;  but  she  understood  at  last 
that  her  mother  had  once  been  like  herself,  hand- 
some, ambitious,  and  full  of  energy.  Once,  but 
that  was  long  ago. 

"  She  shouldn't  have  told  me,"  she  cried.  "  If 
she  had  been  the  one  to  take  the  money  she  would 
not  have  told  me."  But  her  mother  had  been  hon- 
est to  the  uttermost  farthing.  She  had  been  so 
honest,  that  she  had  not  dared  to  keep  the  story  of 
her  husband's  wrong-doing  from  his  child. 

"  What  does  it  matter  now  ?  "  said  Minty,  tear- 
ing the  letter  across  and  across.  "  He  is  dead  and 
nobody  knows." 

She  could  not  feel  that  her  father's  wrong-doing 
concerned  her  in  any  way;  as  long  as  people  did 
not  know  that  he  had  yielded  to  temptation,  she 
and  hers  were  not  disgraced ;  indeed  as  matters  were, 
her  only  feeling  was  one  of  sympathy.  The  poor 
fellow  had  meant  to  put  the  money  back,  had  hoped 
no  doubt  to  make  a  fortune,  had  been  thinking  of 
his  wife  and  child,  how  then  could  that  child  do 
aught  but  pity  him  ?  She  wished  she  did  not  know, 
or  that  she  could  obliterate  the  story  from  her  mind. 
At  least  she  would  take  good  care  not  to  pass  it  on. 


TREASURE   TROVE  125 

Her  mother's  anxious  conscientiousness  might  have 
done  harm  to  her  father's  memory;  and  Minty 
found  that  she  was  suddenly  unable  to  think  of  her 
with  quite  the  old  reverence  and  affection.  The 
man  whom  Mrs.  Lovell  had  not  been  able  to  for- 
give, was  her  child's  father  and  that  child  thought 
his  dishonesty  a  matter  of  small  moment,  an  old 
story  which  should  have  been  forgotten  these  many 
years  back,  forgotten  and  forgiven.  Her  poor,  poor 
father,  how  well  she  now  remembered  the  look  which 
she  had  not  understood!  Ah,  if  she  had  but  known, 
she  who  had  thought  he  was  grown  too  old  to  romp, 
too  old  to  care  for  the  society  of  a  noisy,  merry, 
little  girl.  During  that  last  year  of  his  life  she 
had  seen  so  little  of  him,  she  who  could  have  sympa- 
thised. And  now  it  was  too  late,  he  was  dust  these 
many  years,  his  misdeeds  and  his  repentance  alike 
forgotten.  His  daughter  could  not  know  that  she 
had  been  very  little  to  her  father,  that  what  Jim 
Lovell  had  wanted  had  been  his  wife's  love  and 
forgiveness, — the  unattainable. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

IT  had  not  taken  Mrs.  Smart  long  to  realise  that 
the  diamonds,  sapphires,  rubies  and  other  stones, 
with  which  the  six  ornaments  were  studded  would 
be  more  valuable  to  her  as  mere  loose  gems,  than 
while  held  by  the  tiny  claws  and  clasps  of  their 
settings.  Her  ingenious  mind  suggested  that  some 
half-dozen,  empty,  chip  boxes  which  thrift  had  put 
by  until  they  should  be  needed,  might  be  utilised 
to  hold  the  disengaged  stones;  and  by  prolonging 
the  period  of  her  afternoon  rest,  she  was  able  to 
give  half  an  hour  every  day,  to  the  task  which  she 
had  set  herself.  A  knife,  a  sharp  iron  skewer  and 
a  pair  of  scissors  were  her  tools,  and  day  after  day 
the  work  of  disintegration  went  on,  the  glittering 
heaps  augmenting  until  at  last  the  bent  and  bat- 
tered settings  had  given  up  every  atom  of  their 
treasure.  What  to  do  with  the  ill-used  metal  Mrs. 
Smart  did  not  know.  The  Laurels  was  a  corner> 
house  with,  in  front,  an  uninterrupted  view  across 
some  fields.  These  fields  belonged  to  a  gin-distiller, 
whose  comfortable  mansion,  lying  behind  copses 
and  shrubberies,  was  out  of  sight;  and  they  were 
fenced  from  the  road  by  grey  park  palings.  It  was 
the  habit  of  the  neighbourhood  to  dump  behind 
these  palings,  anything  of  which  it  imperatively  de- 

126 


TREASURE   TROVE  127 

sired  to  be  rid.  Mrs.  Smart  had  known  a  well-kept 
lobster  and  more  than  one  unpleasant  tin  of  potted 
meat  to  go  that  way;  and  she  fixed  a  meditative 
eye  upon  the  grey  wood,  she  even  went  further 
and  took  into  consideration  an  elm  in  a  row  of  trees 
at  the  end  of  the  fields.  The  children  trespassing 
in  search  of  flowers  and  eggs  had  described  to  her 
tfre  hole,  too  deep  for  them  to  probe,  which  they 
had  found  in  the  rugged  bole  of  the  tree.  But 
their  mother  could  not  think  that  either  place  would 
be  quite  safe.  The  elm,  rotten  at  heart,  might  be 
cut  down  or  uprooted  by  a  storm,  and  anything 
dropped  behind  the  palings  might  be  found,  and  if 
so  questions  would  be  asked,  inquiries  made.  It 
was  evident  that  she  must  wait.  Meanwhile  with 
heavy  foot  she  trod  them  close ;  and  as  they  were  of 
a  gold  without  much  alloy,  it  was  not  difficult  to 
crush  them  together. 

Mrs.  Smart  was  never  tired  of  pouring  the  re- 
leased stones  through  her  fingers,  of  letting  the  sun 
bring  out  the  colours  that  their  facets  held,  of 
setting  them  forth  in  rows  on  the  blue  velvet  of  the 
desk.  She  was  like  a  child  with  a  new  toy  and 
though  she  might  wonder  what  she  would  eventu- 
ally do  with  them,  she  was  content  to  bide  her  time. 
She  lived,  therefore,  her  two  lives,  her  busy  every- 
day existence  and  this  other  of  secret  joys  and 
hopes,  and  saw  nothing  strange  in  the  combination. 
Loneliness  had  never  seemed  to  her  other  than  the 
normal  condition  of  humanity.  Not  even  her  hus- 


128  TREASURE   TROVE 

band  had  held  the  key  to  her  thoughts ;  and  she  took 
it  for  granted  that  she  resembled  in  this  as  in  other 
things,  the  rest  of  the  world. 

One  frosty  night  towards  the  end  of  January, 
evening  of  a  day  on  which  she  had  successfully  re- 
leased a  whole  row  of  different  sized  diamonds 
from  the  left  wing  of  the  tiara,  Mrs.  Smart  with 
freshly  washed  hands  was  waiting  for  a  moment  in 
the  dining-room.  Her  thoughts  were  full  of  the  din- 
ner which  she  had  just  cooked  and  which  Annie  was 
dishing  up,  and  her  eyes  travelled  happily  about  the 
terra-cotta  room  with  its  chocolate  paint.  The  good 
woman's  possessions  gave  her  many  a  moment  of 
simple  pleasure.  To  her  thinking  the  pilastered 
clock  of  black  marble  on  the  mantel-shelf,  the  gilt- 
edged  mirror  behind  it,  the  green  leather  chairs, 
and  the  solid  mahogany  table  set  out  with  shining 
electro — for  they  did  not  use  their  silver — the 
brightly  burning  gas-jets  and  the  fire  on  the  red- 
tiled  hearth,  made  an  attractive  whole  which  she 
would  not  willingly  have  exchanged  for  any  other 
dining-room  in  Eastham.  Intrinsic  beauty  was 
nothing  to  Mrs.  Smart,  she  valued  her  possessions 
because  they  were  hers,  a  part  of  her  daily  life, 
made  dear  to  her  by  familiarity  and  long  associa- 
tion. As  she  stood  looking  about  her  approvingly, 
the  postman's  rat-tat  broke  in  upon  her  thoughts 
and  she  hurried  out.  She  liked  to  answer  the  door. 
She  said  that  as  she  only  kept  one  servant,  there 
were  plenty  of  other  things  fpr  the  girl  to  do.  But 


TREASURE   TROVE  129 

that  was  only  an  excuse.  Mrs.  Smart  was  curious 
and  liked  to  know  all  that  was  happening;  and  she 
learnt  quite  a  number  of  things  by  going  herself 
in  reply  to  errant  knocks  and  rings. 

This  evening  a  letter  from  her  brother-in-law, 
Col.  William  Smart,  a  flimsy  grey-lined  envelope 
with  an  Australian  postmark,  lay  in  the  box.  The 
children  were  up  stairs,  the  boy  changing  into  an 
old  coat,  the  girl  prinking  before  her  glass,  and  Mrs. 
Smart  was  at  leisure.  She  took  the  letter  back 
into  the  dining-room;  and  with  the  comfortable 
sigh  of  a  woman,  who  is  at  the  same  time,  both 
tired  and  contented,  dropped  into  one  of  the  much- 
buttoned  armchairs  and  began  to  read. 

William  had  been  the  only  one  of  the  Smart  family 
who,  in  this  world  of  little  love,  had  cared  suf- 
ficiently for  Richard  to  come  and  see  him  after  his 
marriage.  He  was  a  soldier  in  the  Indian  Army 
and  not  often  at  home ;  but  a  long  leave  never  passed 
without  his  spending  a  few  days  of  it  at  Eastham. 
The  man  of  the  world  had  held  the  winner  of  prizes 
and  scholarships  in  wondering  esteem,  and  though 
the  one  had  prospered  while  the  other  was  labouring 
for  a  thankless  wage,  the  successful  man  had  con- 
tinued to  look  up  to  the  unsuccessful.  The  last 
time,  some  eight  years  previously,  that  he  had  been 
in  England,  the  brothers  had  gone  for  a  walking 
tour  in  Hampshire.  The  weather  had  been  pro- 
pitious, the  roads  good  and  when,  some  months  later, 
Minty  overwhelmed  with  grief,  had  written  to  tell 


130  TREASURE   TROVE 

him  of  Richard's  death,  Colonel  Smart  could  look 
back  thankfully  to  that  fortnight  of  kind  com- 
panionship. 

On  obtaining  the  command  of  his  regiment,  he 
had  retired  from  the  service.  Having  some  years 
previously  invested  his  savings  in  a  Ceylon  planta- 
tion, he  now  took  over  the  management  of  it.  The 
man  was  fortunate  as  well  as  shrewd;  and  after 
some  years  of  profitable  work,  had  been  able  to  sell 
it  advantageously,  and  to  think  of  coming  home. 

During  the  last  six  months,  as  he  informed  his 
sister-in-law,  he  had  been  in  Australia,  touring 
among  mines  and  diggings ;  but  though  he  liked  the 
country,  he  could  not  find  it  in  his  heart  to  settle 
out  of  England,  hoped  indeed  to  be  back  that  sum- 
mer. He  wanted  to  see  his  godson,  young  William, 
wanted  Minty's  advice  as  to  where  he  should  look 
for  a  house,  wanted  to  see  if  Eva's  eyes  were  still 
as  soft  as  when  she  had  persuaded  an  old  uncle  to 
take  her  to  the  pantomime.  The  letter  was  char- 
acteristic of  the  man  who  had  written  it,  a  cheery, 
good-hearted  effusion,  which  concealed  as  much 
as  it  said.  But  Minty  could  read  between  the  lines. 
He  was  coming  home,  but  she  knew  that  he  felt 
older,  that  he  had  been  thinking  of  the  gaps  in  the 
circle,  of  the  brother  who  had  been  his  earliest  chum, 
his  life-long  friend,  and  who  would  not  be  there  to 
bid  him  welcome. 

Mrs.  Smart  looked  across  at  the  other  much-but- 
toned chair,  Richard's  chair.  She  was  not  psychic. 


TREASURE   TROVE  131 

She  had  no  feeling  that  the  dead  man  might  pos- 
sibly be  with  her  though  invisible,  but  she  believed 
in  the  "resurrection  of  the  dead,  the  life  of  the 
world  to  come,"  and  she  believed,  not  because  she 
was  a  weak  woman  clinging  for  comfort  to  the 
promises  of  religion,  but  because  she  was  simple  and 
credulous. 

A  rustle  of  silk  preceded  Eva's  appearance  and 
the  young  girl,  looking  in  her  half-mourning  un- 
usually refined,  pushed  open  the  door. 

Custom  had  become  less  rigorous  with  regard  to 
such  matters,  but  Mrs.  Smart  wore  a  crape-trimmed 
gown  and  would  have  liked  her  daughter  to  have 
done  the  same.  She  looked  with  disapproval  at  the 
girlish  figure  in  its  black  skirt  and  white  lace  blouse, 
but  though  she  blamed  she  understood.  Unre- 
lieved black  did  not  suit  Eva,  it  added  years  to  her 
age  and  dimmed  her  beauty,  what  more  natural 
therefore,  than  that  the  girl  should  decline  to  wear 
it?  But  so  smart  a  blouse!  Eva  had  bought  it  at 
Jones  and  Higgins'  sale  on  the  preceding  Monday 
and  had  spoken  of  keeping  it  for  the  summer.  Mrs. 
Smart's  heart  misgave  her  as  she  noted  the  details 
of  her  daughter's  toilet,  the  ribbon  in  her  hair,  the 
locket  on  its  thin  gold  chain,  the  yellow  roses  care- 
fully pinned  against  the  curve  of  her  young  breast. 
Eva  had  not  much  pocket  money  and  it  was  still 
January.  She  had  not  bought  those  roses.  But  her 
mother,  though  she  watched,  did  not  interfere  un- 
necessarily, did  not  ask  intrusive!  questions.  She 


132  TREASURE    TROVE 

only  feared.  Since  the  skating  party  at  East- 
borough,  Eva  had  taken  unusual  pains  with  herself ; 
could  it  be  possible  that  the  time  had  come  for  her 
as  it  comes  for  us  all,  that  the  one  man  had  ap- 
peared, the  one  whose  image  magnified  by  loving 
eyes,  was  to  shut  all  the  others  out  of  sight  ? 

As  her  daughter  opened  the  door,  Mrs.  Smart 
rose  and  went  over  to  make  the  tea,  but  her  manner 
was  pre-occupied.  She  was  thinking  of  Archibald 
Flowerdew,  the  young  schoolmaster.  Though  he 
was  without  private  means  he  would  not  be  a  bad 
match  for  her  daughter.  His  position  was  good, 
he  had  taken  honours  at  college  and  his  connections 
were  well-to-do.  As  to  the  practical  side  of  the 
matter  well,  if  Eva  fancied  him,  they  might  depend 
upon  her  to  help;  and  her  thoughts  flew  hot-foot, 
not  to  her  mother's  honourable  legacy,  but  to  those 
heaps  of  beautiful  blue  and  red  and  white  stones, 
now  shut  away  in  their  chip  boxes  within  the  locked 
desk.  Mrs.  Smart  wore  the  key  of  that  desk  about 
her  neck  as  Mrs.  Lovell  had  done,  and  for  the  same 
reason. 

Annie  Price  brought  in  the  small  shoulder  of 
New  Zealand  mutton,  the  mint  sauce  and  the  baked 
potatoes,  and  the  little  family  sat  down  to  its  meal. 

"  I  have  just  had  a  letter  from  your  Uncle  Wil- 
liam," Mrs.  Smart  said  as  she  passed  Willy  his  tea. 
He  being  the  man  of  the  house,  was  carver,  while 
Eva  helped  the  potatoes  and  passed  the  sauce.  "  He 


TREASURE   TROVE  133 

has  been  in  Australia  for  the  last  few  months,  but 
is  coming  home  this  summer." 

Willy  looked  up  from  his  work.  "  In  Australia," 
he  said  keenly.  "Did  he  say  where?" 

"  Oh  yes ;  he  named  some  places  of  which  I  had 
never  heard." 

Willy  finished  carving  for  his  mother  and  sister, 
and  then  laid  down  the  knife  and  fork.  "  Where 
is  the  letter?"  said  he.  Its  contents  were  of  more 
importance  to  him  than  his  food. 

"  Oh  Willy,"  said  his  mother  deprecatingly  and 
wished  that  she  had  not  mentioned  it;  but  she  gave 
him  the  sheet  of  flimsy  paper.  After  all,  Colonel 
Smart  was  his  god-father  and  a  comparatively 
wealthy  man,  who  knew  what  he  might  not  do  for 
this  good-looking  nephew  of  his?  She  took  her 
own  plate  from  Eva's  careful  hands,  and  began  her 
so-called  dinner.  Her  hopes  were  for  her  children, 
for  their  success  in  life,  for  their  happiness;  she 
asked  of  fate  nothing  for  herself. 

"  How  old  is  Uncle  William,  Mother?  "  said  her 
son,  as  he  restored  the  letter  to  its  envelope.  He 
had  read  it  devouringly  and  now,  a  brooding  look 
on  his  dark  face,  was  turned  back  to  the  table. 
There  were  two  Willys,  the  dreamer  of  quiet  hours 
and  a  gay  light-hearted  boy ;  but  the  one  who  ques- 
tioned, was  the  one  his  mother  feared,  as  we  are  all 
apt  to  fear  that  which  is  unknown  but  evidently 
greater  than  ourselves.  Mrs.  Smart  liked  to  think 


I34  TREASURE   TROVE 

of  her  son  as  a  youth  upon  whom  the  city  had  al- 
ready laid  its  appropriating  finger,  one  who  would 
be  content  to  realise  the  ambitions  of  ordinary  men, 
for  these  things  were  within  her  comprehension. 

"  How  old  is  your  Uncle  William?  Let  me  see, 
he  is  two  years  senior  to  your  father,  who  would 
have  been  fifty-six  this  March.  He  must  be  fifty- 
eight." 

"  Fifty-eight,"  said  Willy  slowly.  "  He  has  had 
to  wait  fifty-eight  years  before  he  was  able  to  go 
where  he  liked,  before  he  had  the  money  to  do  it. 
It's  a  long  time." 

"  But  he  has  been  about  a  lot,"  suggested  Eva. 

"  He  has  been  sent  about,"  corrected  her  brother. 
"  He  hasn't  been  free  to  go,  to  just  go." 

"  And  now  that  he  can  please  himself,"  said  the 
mother,  "he  talks,  as  any  sensible  man  would,  of 
coming  home." 

Her  son  raised  his  flint-grey  eyes  and  fixed  them 
on  her  for  a  moment,  but  he  said  no  more.  He 
had  already  begun  to  realise,  that  what  he  most 
desired  would  hardly  be  for  his  mother's  happiness. 

"  I  suppose  he  will  come  and  stay  with  us  ?  "  Eva 
said  pensively.  Matters  of  more  importance  than 
the  visit  of  an  elderly  uncle  were  occupying  her  at- 
tention; but  she  wished  to  hide  the  dreaming 
thoughts  that  possessed  her.  From  her  mother's 
eyes  she  hid  them  about  as  much  as  she  would  have 
done  if  she  had  sung  them  aloud,  but  brothers  are 
less  observant. 


TREASURE    TROVE  135 

"  But  of  course,"  said  Willy  impatiently.  "  He 
wants  to  come,  he  says  so,  and  Uncle  William  al- 
ways means  what  he  says." 

"  He  may  want  to  come,"  replied  Mrs.  Smart, 
"  but  you  must  remember  that  he  may  find  it  pain- 
ful. He  was  very  fond  of  your  father." 

"  But  now — I  want  him,"  said  youth  insistently, 
and  the  mother  felt  a  slight  stirring  of  jealousy. 
She  no  longer  sufficed  her  son,  he  wanted  more  than 
she  could  give  him,  more  than  she  had  to  give.  But 
what  was  it,  this  something  which  she  did  not 
possess  and  which  her  child  desired? 

"  Mother,"  interposed  Eva,  whose  thoughts  had 
strayed  from  the  contemplation  of  her  uncle's  pos- 
sible visit,  "  do  you  know,  you  have  never  told  us 
what  was  in  Granny's  box  ?  " 

Mrs.  Smart  felt  suddenly  uncomfortable.  "  No," 
said  she,  and  not  being  good  at  subterfuge,  said  no 
more. 

"  And  she  won't,"  said  her  son,  who  had  begun 
his  dinner  and  was  making  up  for  lost  time.  On 
the  surface  his  moods  were  apt  to  succeed  one  an- 
other with  bewildering  rapidity,  the  one  to  which 
he  was  constant  being  kept  out  of  sight.  He  under- 
stood his  mother  fairly  well  and  it  amused  him  to 
chaff  her.  Secretiveness  was  one  of  her  weak- 
nesses; but  why  shouldn't  she  keep  things  to  her- 
self if  she  wanted  to,  the  dear  old  mater  ?  "  You 
couldn't  tell  us  about  it,  now  could  you,  Mother 
dear?" 


136  TREASURE    TROVE 

Mrs.  Smart  smiled  back  at  her  favourite  child, 
thankful  to  him  for  having  unconsciously  come  to 
the  rescue.  "Oh,  Willy,  Willy!"  she  said,  and 
shook  at  him  an  admonishing  finger. 

"  But  we  can  guess,"  continued  the  culprit. 
"  Now  Eva,  what  do  you  think  is  in  the  box?  " 

"  Two  hundred  pounds  in  five  pound  notes ! " 
said  his  sister  after  due  consideration. 

"  I  say  a  hundred  sovereigns  in  a  leather  bag. 
Come,  now,  Mother,  wasn't  that  the  figure?  And 
you'll  let  me  invest  it,  won't  you?  A  safe  thing, 
safe  as  houses  and  seven  per  cent — there !  " 

"  Seven  per  cent  indeed !  "  Mrs.  Smart  knew  bet- 
ter than  that. 

".Well,  two  and  a  half  then,  anything  to  please 
you." 

"  I  wouldn't  trust  a  boy  like  you  with  my  in- 
vestments," protested  his  mother  with  amiable  but 
sincere  contempt.  It  was  difficult  for  her  to  realise 
that  he  had  twenty-three  years  to  his  credit  and 
might  be  thought  a  man. 

"  Boy  indeed,  when  if  you  could  only  be  per- 
suaded to  come  down  with  the  cash,  I  might  be  on 
my  own." 

"  And  who'd  trust  you  with  any  business  ?  " 

Willy  began  to  count  with  his  fingers.  "  Dobell, 
Matthews,  Chippendale,  Rand,  Coward,  Mur- 
row " 

His  mother  looked  impressed.  "  Seriously, 
Willy?" 


TREASURE    TROVE  137 

"  They've  promised  it, — on  the  train,  you  know. 
Oh,  that  first-class  season  was  a  fine  idea  of  yours, 
it  has  helped  me  to  no  end  of  good  friends."  He 
was  speaking  the  truth.  His  boyish  gaiety,  tem- 
pered as  it  was  with  appreciation  of  their  greater  ex- 
perience, had  won  him  the  suffrage  of  his  elders; 
and  especially  of  those  upon  whom  the  monotony 
of  their  money-getting  pressed  most  heavily.  He 
had  been  a  ray  of  sunshine  in  the  greyness  of  their 
day  and  several  of  them  really  meant,  when  he  went 
into  business  on  his  own  account,  to  give  him  a 
helping  hand.  "  Honestly,  Mother,  I  could  begin 
in  a  small  way.  Addison  will  be  an  authorised  clerk 
before  long  and  next  year  he  thinks  of  setting  up 
for  himself.  His  father  is  finding  the  money,  and 
he  said  something  to  me  yesterday  about  fixing  up 
a  partnership." 

"  A  partnership  with  Addison  ?  " 

"  That  was  the  idea." 

"  Humph !  "  Mrs.  Smart  had  seen  the  young  man 
in  question,  a  good  lad  but  dull,  too  dull  to  be  any- 
thing but  steady  and  discreet.  To  a  certain  extent 
she  approved  of  him.  Her  Willy  was  too  eager,  he 
had  not  the  ballast  of  the  other.  Yes,  they  might 
do  worse  than  "fix  up  a  partnership."  As  she 
ruminated,  weighing  the  two  youths  in  the  scales 
of  her  judgment,  Eva's  voice  broke  the  silence. 
The  girl  was  as  sweetly  grave  as  her  brother  was 
buoyant,  but  she  was,  at  least  on  the  surface,  far 
more  tenacious.  She  wanted  to  know  more  about 


138  TREASURE   TROVE 

Granny's  box  and  she  was  not  to  be  turned  from 
her  quest. 

"  But,  Mother,  you  have  not  told  us  a  single 
thing,"  she  said,  "  and  I  am  so  much  interested." 

Mrs.  Smart  was  at  bay.  "  There  was  a  letter 
from  your  grandmother,"  she  said  reluctantly.  "  It 
was  about  family  affairs,  things  that  concerned  her 
and  me,  but  which  I  trust  may  never  concern  you 
children.  Also  there  was  money." 

"  In  gold  ?  "  said  the  girl.  She  thought  that  any- 
thing to  do  with  family  affairs  must  concern  her 
as  well  as  her  mother;  but  she  knew  that  mother 
too  well,  to  try  and  wheedle  out  of  her  more  than 
she  wished  to  reveal. 

"  No,  not  in  gold  and  not  in  fivers.  Now  that  is 
all  I'm  going  to  tell  you." 

"  It  would  be  so  much  more  interesting,  Mother," 
said  Eva,  feeling  that  she  must  make  the  small 
remonstrance,  "  if  you  would  always  tell  us  every- 
thing." 

Her  mother  glanced  at  her  shrewdly.  She  knew 
more  about  her  daughter's  affairs  than  that  daugh- 
ter suspected.  "  I  wonder  if  it  would,"  she  said 
thoughtfully.  "  I  know  a  good  deal  about  other  peo- 
ple, but  I  wonder  if  they  would  be  interested  to 
hear  it.'*  She  had  detected  the  little  seedling  of 
rebellion  and  meant  to  put  that  heavy  foot  of  hers 
upon  it.  "  Where  they  go  for  their  walk  on  a 
Sunday  afternoon  for  instance,  and  who  they  go 
with."  ' 


TREASURE   TROVE  139 

The  girl  coloured  lightly.  "  Oh,  Mother,  you  are 
too  bad,"  she  said  and,  her  thoughts  deflected  from 
the  issue  of  the  moment,  she  half-smiled  at  her, 
entreating  her  with  soft  eyes  to  have  mercy.  It 
was  a  fact  that  she  was  apt,  when  walking,  to  be 
met  surprisingly  often  by  some  one  or  other  of  her 
male  acquaintances,  but  could  she  help  it?  Sunday 
afternoons  were  dull,  or  would  have  been  if  she  had 
stayed  at  home,  dozing  over  a  novel.  Besides  it 
was  stuffy  indoors,  and  she  needed  fresh  air  and 
exercise.  But  how  did  her  mother  know  that 
whether  she  needed  it  or  not,  she  also  had  com- 
panionship ? 

Mrs.  Smart,  the  silent  struggle  at  an  end,  smiled 
back  at  her  and  smiled  with  confidence.  The  girl 
in  spite  of  her  adorable  little  air  of  dependence  and 
docility,  was  perfectly  well  able  to  take  care  of 
herself.  She  conquered  by  her  softness,  by  her 
quick  shy  smiles,  her  gratitude.  It  was  so  very 
pleasant  to  be  appreciated,  to  be  liked,  and  it  was 
so  surprising.  Eva's  attitude  towards  the  other  sex 
was  full  of  an  unconscious  flattery;  but  her  heart, 
cool  in  its  chamber  of  dreams,  lay  sleeping.  Mrs. 
Smart  wondered  for  the  hundredth  time,  whether 
the  Prince  was  come,  the  Prince  who  was  to  kiss  it 
awake,  but  she  did  not  voice  her  wonder.  Instead 
she  let  the  talk  slip  back  into  everyday  channels. 

Annie  Price  brought  in  the  banana  cream  and 
removed  the  meat.  Willy,  strolling  down  Fleet 
Street  on  the  preceding  day,  had  seen  a  coster  cry- 


140  TREASURE    TROVE 

ing  the  yellow  fruit  at  six  a  penny,  and  had  bought 
a  dozen  for  his  mother.  To  her  credit  as  a  house- 
keeper be  it  said,  Mrs.  Smart  knew  the  difference 
between  the  cooking  and  eating  varieties  of  the 
fruit;  and  the  banana  cream — cream  that  had  been 
skimmed  from  the  morning's  milk — was  the  result. 

That  evening  as  they  sat  about  the  fire,  the 
mother  knitting  socks  for  her  boy,  Eva  on  a  little 
stool  sewing,  and  the  boy  with  his  head  in  his  hands 
and  his  strange  eyes  fixed  upon  the  little  dancing 
flames,  a  ring,  the  ring  of  a  visitor,  broke  in  upon 
their  various  and  very  different  thoughts. 

"  I  expect  it  is  only  Froggie  Murrow  or  Bertie 
Chippendale,"  Willie  said,  and  rising  went  to  open 
the  door.  The  youths  in  question  often  dropped  in 
for  an  hour's  chat  or  a  game  of  cards;  but  Mrs. 
Smart  knew  from  the  look  upon  her  daughter's 
face  that  the  visitor  was  not  likely  to  be  either  of 
them,  and  she  neither  looked  nor  felt  surprised  when 
Willy  returning  ushered  in  a  tall  fair  man. 

"It's  Flowerdew,  Mother,"  he  announced  in  his 
gay  young  voice.  He  liked  society  and  anybody 
would  have  been  welcome,  but  he  was  a  little  sur- 
prised that  this  particular  man  should  have  elected 
to  come  and  look  him  up. 

Nor  had  the  two  much  in  common.  The  ten 
years  that  lay  between  them  had  brought  sophisti- 
cation to  Flowerdew,  and  Willy  was  to  him  only  a 
raw,  unpolished  youth,  whose  society  must  be  en- 
dured for  his  sister's  sake.  Flowerdew,  whose 


TREASURE   TROVE  141 

languid  manner  covered  firm  decisions,  would  have 
cheerfully  endured  for  that  same  sake,  other  and 
greater  things  than  a  little  uncongenial  society. 

He  had  taken  as  a  matter  of  course  the  other 
much-buttoned  armchair;  and  as  he  leant  back  in 
an  attitude  which  showed  the  grace  of  his  figure, 
Mrs.  Smart  could  not  but  notice  that  the  head  above 
the  tired-looking  blue  eyes,  was  well  developed  and 
very  broad.  They  had  not  hitherto  met,  and  she 
was  therefore  peculiarly  interested  in  everything 
that  concerned  him.  For  a  moment  it  had  seemed 
to  her  strange  that  Eva  should  have  taken  to  such 
a  man ;  but  when  he  turned  to  the  young  girl  on  her 
stool  in  the  corner,  his  superciliousness  dropped 
from  him.  It  was  evident  to  her  mother  that  Eva 
felt  the  flattery  of  his  attitude ;  and  that  she  thought 
him  vastly  superior  to  the  budding  city  men  by, 
whom  she  was  surrounded. 

He  had  a  fine  head  and  deep-set  eyes,  but  Mrs. 
Smart  was  not  so  well  pleased  with  the  rest  of  the 
face.  Below  the  eyes  were  cheeks  too  pallid  in  hue, 
cheeks  that  told  of  late  hours  and  an  indoor  life, 
and  the  mouth  had  a  queer  twist.  It  was  not  a 
good-tempered  mouth  and  it  was  self-indulgent. 
Mrs.  Smart  fancied  that  whosoever  married  Archi- 
bald Flowerdew  would  be  seeking  trouble,  and  she 
looked  anxiously  from  his  face  to  that  of  her  daugh- 
ter. Eva's  cheeks  and  brow  and  chin  had  all  the 
roundness  of  budding  womanhood,  but  there  was 
promise  in  the  firm  soft  lips  and  in  the  faintly  indi- 


142  TREASURE   TROVE 

cated  line  of  the  jaw.  She  was  not  clever  but  she 
was  decided  and  persistent.  Mrs.  Smart  would 
rather  she  did  not  marry  Mr.  Flowerdew;  but  if 
she  should  elect  to  do  so,  her  mother  felt  that  she 
would  make  the  best  of  him  and  of  her  life  with 
him. 

The  young  people  discussed  the  prospect — a  pros- 
pect which  the  renewed  hard  weather  was  holding 
out — of  further  skating  and  spoke  of  the  next  sub- 
scription dance.  The  last  had  been  on  Christmas 
Eve,  and  there  Flowerdew  had  met  his  '  one  maid.' 
"  Who  gets  up  these  dances  ?  "  he  asked  lazily. 

"  Mr.  Cole,  the  dentist  who  lives  on  the  hill." 

"  Really  ?  "  He  seemed  surprised.  "  Sporting 
chap  your  dentist,  ought  to  be  given  a  vote  of 
thanks  or  a  teapot  or  something." 

"It's  jolly  good  of  him  to  take  all  the  trouble 
he  does,"  said  Willy. 

"And  everybody  goes?" 

"  Rather." 

Responding  to  a  glance  from  his  mother  the 
young  host  rose  and  went  to  one  of  the  cupboards 
in  the  sideboard  for  whiskey,  while  Eva  fetched 
water  and  glasses.  If  a  young  man  called  during 
the  evening,  this  bottle  invariably  made  its  appear- 
ance, but  Mrs.  Smart  preferred  those  youths  who 
refused  the  slight  hospitality.  "  For,"  said  she, 
"  boys  should  not  drink  spirits." 

Mr.  Flowerdew,  however,  was  hardly  a  boy.  He 
helped  himself  to  a  three-finger  peg  and  added  a 


TREASURE   TROVE  143 

little  water.  "  Good  stuff  this  to  keep  out  the 
cold,"  he  said,  looking  at  Eva  over  the  top  of  his 
glass.  "  Here's  to  our  dances.  You  won't  forget, 
will  you  Miss  Smart,  that  you've  promised  me  the 
first  waltz  as  well  as  those  others  later  on  in  the 
evening?  " 

"  I  won't  forget,"  said  Eva  sweetly.  She  had  not 
promised  anything  of  the  sort,  they  had  not  even 
spoken  of  their  programmes ;  but  she  knew  that  she 
would  give  him  all  the  waltzes  he  demanded,  indeed 
if  he  asked,  might  give  him  more  than  waltzes. 

The  young  man  looking  at  her,  made  mental 
note  of  the  fact  that  she  was  in  semi-mourning. 
He  was  of  course  going  to  send  her  flowers  for  the 
dance,  and  he  thought  they  should  be  lilies,  a  spray 
of  lilies.  Her  emblem  was  the  rose,  the  full  warm 
flower  of  midsummer,  an  English  rose;  but  white 
roses  or  tube-roses,  no.  And  after  all  though  they 
did  not  represent  her,  lilies  were  dear  little  people 
and  very  sweet.  Yes,  it  should  be  lilies,  lilies  of  the 
valley. 

Willy,  as  in  duty  bound,  went  with  him  to  the 
door,  but  the  two  men  did  not  linger  in  talk.  "  It's 
very  cold,"  the  boy  said  as  he  came  back  into  the 
dining-room,  "  and  the  stars  are  simply  wonderful. 
Well  mater,  what  do  you  think  of  him  ?  " 

"  Oh,  give  me  time,  dear,  this  is  the  first  time  I've 
seen  him,"  and  Mrs.  Smart,  rolling  up  her  knitting, 
slipped  it  into  the  tall  basket  that  stood  between  the 
coalscuttle  and  the  sideboard. 


144  TREASURE   TROVE 

"  I  'don't  think  I  liked  him.  He's  jolly  patronis- 
ing." 

Eva  looked  up  quickly.  "  Wait  till  you  know  him 
better." 

"  I  don't  fancy  that  I  want  to,  he's  too  la-di-da 
for  me;  and  I  can't  imagine  what  he  dropped  in 
here  for  to-night.  I  never  asked  him  to." 

Mrs.  Smart  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  inform 
her  unobservant  son,  that  the  young  man  had  come 
to  ask  Eva  to  keep  him  a  special  dance,  and  that 
he  had  effected  his  object. 

"  We  shall  probably  see  more  of  him,"  she  re- 
marked, as  she  rose  from  her  chair.  The  day  had 
rounded  to  its  close,  a  long,  happy,  busy  day,  no 
more  to  be  regretted  than  the  ending  of  a  long, 
happy,  busy  life.  "  He  told  me  that  he  had  ac- 
cepted the  post  of  English  master  in  that  big  school 
at  Eastborough,  and  I  said  we  should  be  very 
pleased  if  he  ever  cared  to  look  us  up." 

"  But  he  won't,"  said  Willy  confidently.  "  East- 
borough  College  is  quite  three  miles  from  here,  and 
Flowerdew  isn't  the  kind  to  go  out  bicycling  after 
his  dinner." 

But  his  sister  smiled  to  herself  and  gave  her 
mother  a  little  grateful  hug.  She  did  not  realise 
that  her  wishes  had  been  interpreted,  she  only 
thought  that  Mrs.  Smart  had  been  unusually  appre- 
ciative, and  that  her  undeclared  lover  had  been  in- 
yited  to  the  house — for  his  own  sake ! 


CHAPTER  IX 

COLONEL  WILLIAM  SMART,  fifth  son  of  old  Sir 
Jocelyn,  was  a  man  of  sense  rather  than  ability.  It 
being  impressed  upon  him  from  his  youth  up,  that 
he  would  have  to  make  his  own  way  in  the  world, 
he  had  perceived  that  a  pension  for  his  old  age  and 
a  sufficient  income  in  his  middle  age,  were  matters 
which  it  behoved  him  to  obtain.  A  commission 
in  the  Indian  Army  promising  both,  he  had  early 
bidden  a  philosophic  farewell  to  his  native  land  and 
promising  himself  whatever  of  fighting  and  shikari 
were  to  be  obtained,  had  voyaged  east.  He  was  the 
cheeriest  of  men,  with  a  something,  possibly  of 
manner,  certainly  of  temperament,  which  procured 
him  the  friendship  of  those  whom  he  honoured  with 
his  liking,  and  the  respect,  though  hardly  perhaps 
the  affection,  of  the  rest  of  the  world.  If  such  a 
man  had  not  married,  it  was  because  domesticity 
was  alien  to  him,  for  of  love  he  had  had  enough 
and  to  spare.  To  him  it  had  been  neither  a  tragedy 
nor  a  succession  of  episodes,  but  a  part  and  a  bril- 
liant part  of  the  pattern  of  life.  He  was  a  small 
man,  with  fine  hands  and  feet,  a  strong  personality 
in  a  little  case.  In  his  dark  face,  his  eyes  which 
must  have  been  intended  for  hazel  gave  an  impres- 
sion as  of  opaque  green,  the  green  of  jade ;  but  his 


146  TREASURE   TROVE 

black  lashes  were  so  discreet,  the  eyes  so  deeply  set, 
that  casual  observers  generally  supposed  them  a  light 
brown. 

Most  of  this  man's  life  had  of  course  been  spent 
in  India,  the  India  of  the  British  Raj  and  he  was 
now  returning  to  unmysterious  England,  the  Eng- 
land of  country  houses,  of  little  pieces  of  land  neatly 
fenced  about,  of  elaborate  gardens,  over-civilisa- 
tion and  a  pallid  meat-eating  folk.  He  was  not  sure, 
given  his  experience  and  experiences,  that  he  was 
wise  to  do  so ;  but  wanderer  as  he  was  at  heart,  he 
yet  longed  to  spend  the  last  years  of  his  life  among 
his  kindred;  and  though  he  was  fifty-eight  and  a 
little  tired,  he  supposed  that  once  settled  down,  he 
would  soon  find  things  that  it  interested  him  to  do 
and  people  that  it  would  interest  him  to  meet.  Also 
he  was  his  own  master  and  when  he  had  disposed 
of  a  certain  piece  of  property,  would  have  a  com- 
fortable income.  He  had  enjoyed  his  time  in  the 
army,  he  had  enjoyed  his  work  on  the  plantation 
and  now  he  would  enjoy  his  leisure.  Coming  back, 
with  England  as  his  goal,  he  yet  came  slowly,  spend- 
ing a  month  or  two  in  New  Zealand,  in  Brazil,  in 
Columbia;  May,  however,  found  him  in  Eastham 
and  as  cheerfully  appreciative  of  its  spring  beauties, 
as  he  had  been  of  the  deeper-coloured  glories  of 
the  tropics.  For  the  suburb  was  at  all  times  a  pretty 
place,  and  the  little  strips  of  back  garden  having 
been  planted  with  fruit  trees,  the  front  with  flower- 
ing shrubs,  laburnum,  hawthorn,  old-fashioned 


TREASURE    TROVE  147 

purple  laylock  and  American  currant,  in  spring  it 
was  enchanting.  In  the  tree-bordered  fields  opposite 
to  The  Laurels,  the  larks  trilled  all  day  long,  the 
cuckoo  called,  and  when  night  brought  the  revela- 
tion of  the  stars,  the  nightingale  began  with  many 
breaks,  his  song  of  rapture. 

Eight  years,  nearly  nine,  had  come  and  gone 
since  Colonel  Smart  had  seen  an  English  spring, 
since  he  had  watched  the  apple  trees  blushing  into 
bloom,  and  seen  the  brown  earth  hidden  by  the 
snow  of  fallen  petals;  and  during  the  eight,  nearly 
nine  years,  those  human  beings  for  whom  as  rela- 
tives, he  had  a  kindly  affection,  had  grown  and 
changed.  Minty  was  not  very  different,  a  little 
older,  but  still  in  her  large  and  cheerful  way  a 
comely  woman,  but  the  children !  The  shyly  smiling 
Eva  had  come  to  where  the  brook  and  river  meet — 
and  Willy!  But  Colonel  Smart  looked  at  his  tall 
nephew  with  a  faint  sense  of  disappointment.  As  a 
youngster  the  boy  had  been  charming,  he  was  still 
charming,  but — well,  what  was  it?  The  service 
man  looked  the  other  over,  wondering  where  he  got 
his  clothes.  They  were  good  clothes,  they  were 
serviceable  clothes,  they  had  even  a  little  air  of 
smartness — ah,  that  was  it — of  the  wrong  kind  of 
smartness.  But  that  was  hardly  the  boy's  fault, 
perhaps  he  went  to  a  suburban  tailor,  to  some  little 
man  in  the  Eastham  High  Street.  Colonel  Smart's 
own  clothes  came  from  a  bow-fronted  shop  in  Pic- 
cadilly, and  he  promised  himself,  when  he  knew  the 


148  TREASURE   TROVE 

boy  a  little  better,  to  send  him  there  for  a  suit. 
As  a  general  rule  it  would  of  course  be  too  ex- 
pensive for  him,  but  there  must  be  others.  He 
would  inquire  of  brother  officers  at  the  Club,  men 
who  had  not  his  private  income  and  who  yet  always 
contrived  to  wear  the  right  clothes.  Willy  was  a 
Smart,  every  inch  of  him,  but  since  his  father's 
death  he  had  been  left  to  his  own  devices,  and  had 
very  naturally  approximated  in  dress  and  bearing 
to  the  people  among  whom  he  lived ;  but  it  was  not 
too  late,  he  was  young  yet,  and  the  marks  were  not 
indelible. 

Meanwhile  he  could  not  help  seeing  that  if  he 
had  a  liking  for  this  nephew  who  was  only  a  larger, 
younger  edition  of  himself,  to  the  nephew  he 
loomed  as  the  great  man  of  the  family.  Eva  lis- 
tened to  him  as  a  sweet  young  girl  listens  to  an 
elderly  man  who  is  also  a  guest,  but  Willy  hung 
upon  his  words;  and  this  was  so  encouraging  that 
the  Colonel  began  to  wonder  whether  the  garrulity 
of  old  age  had  not  attacked  him.  The  sacred  book 
of  his  life  had  hitherto  been  for  his  own  reading, 
but  now  chapter  after  chapter  was  begged  from  him, 
was  eagerly  studied  and  then  stored  in  the  memory- 
house  of  another.  Colonel  Smart  could  not  but  see 
that  Willy  was  ill-suited  for  life  in  an  office,  indeed 
he  thought  it  a  pity  the  boy  had  not  been  allowed  to 
go  into  the  army.  But  in  Mrs.  Smart's  estimation 
the  services  ranked  with  the  upper  classes.  If  his 
father  had  lived,  the  boy,  against  his  mother's  will, 


TREASURE    TROVE  149 

might  have  found  his  way  into  one  of  them;  but 
after  his  death  the  subject  was  not  so  much  as 
mooted.  A  profession,  if  he  liked,  but  not  either 
of  the  services;  and  on  the  whole,  though  here  she 
might  have  given  way,  she  would  rather  that  he  did 
not  go  abroad.  So  the  boy,  to  whom  life  under 
other  skies,  life  vari-coloured  and  spent  in  the  open, 
alone  appealed,  went  day  after  day  into  a  great  city, 
taking  with  him  the  hope  that  presently  he  might 
make  enough  money  to  bid  it  an  eternal  farewell, 
and  working  well  only  because  of  that  hope. 

No  wonder  that  his  uncle's  descriptions  of  the 
brown  peoples  and  the  yellow  peoples,  the  Malays, 
the  Lascars,  and  the  Seedi-boys  made  Willy  forget 
the  food  on  his  plate  and  the  hour  when  he  should 
go  to  bed.  Even  Eva,  dreaming  of  her  lover,  some- 
times put  aside  her  pre-occupation  to  listen,  while 
that  lover,  roused  out  of  his  insouciance,  was 
frankly  delighted,  so  much  so  indeed  that  he  drew 
upon  him  the  Colonel's  attention. 

So  that  was  the  young  fellow  of  whom  Minty 
had  spoken  to  him.  Not  bad-looking  and  almost — 
perhaps  quite — no,  not  quite  a  gentleman,  but  with 
very  fair  manners.  A  bit  white  about  the  gills,  in- 
door life  perhaps  or  midnight  oil,  still  he  was  rather 
pallid.  Of  course  the  girl  was  too  good  for  him, 
girls  always  were,  at  least  in  the  estimation  of 
fathers  and  uncles. 

"  And  what  did  you  do  with  yourself  when  you 
weren't  busy  on  the  estate?"  Eva  had  inquired. 


150  TREASURE   TROVE 

"  Do  ?  "  Colonel  Smart  thought  of  the  many 
things  he  had  done,  and  made  a  hasty  selection. 
"  Oh,  I  used  to  look  up  a  friend  or— or  do  a  bit 
of  gemming." 

"  Gemming?  "  said  Mrs.  Smart,  at  once  attracted 
by  the  word. 

"  There  was  a  likely  looking  place  by  the  river 
that  ran  at  the  bottom  of  my  garden  and  I  got  one 
or  two  decent  stones  from  it.  I  liked  the  uncer- 
tainty." He  spoke  as  if  apologetically  and  putting 
thumb  and  finger  into  a  waistcoat  pocket,  took  out 
a  large  dark-blue  sapphire.  "  I  bought  a  good 
many  of  my  stones — oh,  didn't  you  know?  Yes,  I 
have  a  collection — from  the  natives,  but  I  found 
that  on  my  own  land." 

The  little  party  of  five  were  sitting  in  the  draw- 
ing-room; and  Mrs.  Smart  putting  out  her  hand 
for  the  stone,  took  it  across  to  the  three-armed  brass 
chandelier  that  depended  from  plaster  leaves  in  the 
centre  of  the  ceiling.  Eva  being  in  favour  of 
shaded  light,  the  gas-globes  were  of  crimson  glass 
and  only  by  standing  directly  under  them  was  it 
possible  to  see  clearly.  "What  is  it?"  said  Mrs. 
Smart  a  little  huskily.  Her  excitement  was  so 
strong  that  the  breath  fluttered  in  her  throat.  "  I 
don't  know  anything  about  stones,  I  don't  even 
know  what  this  is." 

"  It's  a  sapphire." 

"  And  are  sapphires  valuable  ?  " 

"  One  like  this  is.    I've  brought  a  lot  back  with 


TREASURE    TROVE  151 

me.  They'll  sell  better  over  here  than  they  would 
have  in  Ceylon." 

"But  have  you  only  those  dark  stones,  uncle?" 
asked  Eva,  a  critical  note  in  her  voice. 

Colonel  Smart  flashed  the  gem  about  until  the 
girl  had  to  admit  that  there  was  beauty  even  in  a 
sapphire.  "  I've  others  too,"  he  said,  "  cat's-eyes 
and  moonstones  and  star  sapphires,  oh,  lots  of 
them,"  and  he  brought  some  half-dozen  out  of  the 
pocket  which  had  held  the  sapphire.  "  I  like  to  carry 
one  or  two  about  with  me,"  he  said.  "  There ! " 
and  he  held  up  a  cinnamon  stone.  "  Isn't  that  a  glori- 
ous bit  of  colour?  Madeira  isn't  in  the  same  room 
with  it,  eh,  Minty?" 

"  Ah,  that  is  prettier,"  said  Eva,  "  a  necklace  of 
those  now ! " 

Her  uncle  laughed  at  her.  "  I'm  afraid  you  don't 
know  much  about  stones.  Wait  a  moment,  though, 
and  I'll  show  you  something,"  and  in  two  or  three 
minutes  he  was  back  with  a  lump  of  dark  ore  about 
the  size  of  a  man's  hand.  "  What  do  you  think  that 
is  ?  "  he  said,  and  offered  it  to  her. 

Eva  turned  it  about  and  from  its  rough  surface 
gleams  of  iridescence  shot  darkly  forth.  "  It's  like 
peacocks'  feathers,"  she  said.  "  What  is  it,  uncle  ?  " 

"  It's  what  is  called  *  potch,'  in  other  words  it  is 
opal  in  the  rough,  opal  that  hasn't  yet  crystallised 
into  pinfire.  I  brought  it  down  for  your  mother." 

"  It's  lovely.  What  wonderful  deep  dark  greens 
and  blues." 


152  TREASURE    TROVE 

"  I'm  going  to  have  one  side  of  it  polished  for 
you;  and  then  you'll  see,  that  it  really  is,  as  you 
say,  '  lovely/ ' 

Mr.  Flowerdew  examined  it  with  interest. 
"  Where  did  you  get  it  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  From  the  opal  mines.  I  shipped  a  good  deal 
of  it  home  and  have  realised  very  fair  prices 
on  it." 

But  Mrs.  Smart  was  only  interested  in  stones 
similar  to  those  locked  away  in  the  brass-bound 
desk.  "  Do  you  get  diamonds  out  there  ?  "  she 
asked. 

"  Out  where  ?  Oh,  Ceylon.  I  don't  think  so. 
A  few  from  India  but  not  many  nowadays.  The 
nearest  thing  to  them  is  the  white  sapphire  and  it's 
not  thought  much  of,  though  it  was  fashionable 
enough  a  season  or  two  ago.  As  prices  were  ruling 
high  that  year,  I  sold  what  I  had." 

He  sat  down  beside  her  on  the  green  velvet  sofa 
and  began  to  discourse  of  gems.  It  was  not  a  sub- 
ject on  which  he  often  permitted  himself  to  speak, 
though  it  was  one  upon  which  he  could  talk  as  a 
connoisseur.  He  had  gone  to  Australia  in  order  to 
visit  the  gold  diggings  and  the  opal  mines,  he  had 
gone  to  Columbia  to  see  the  emerald  mines,  to  Bra- 
zil after  diamonds,  and  wherever  he  went,  he  had, 
when  it  was  possible,  bought  carefully  from  the 
men  upon  the  spot.  His  collection,  as  he  called  it, 
was  now  very  valuable. 

"  I  did  not  know  you  cared  about  such  things," 


TREASURE   TROVE  153 

he  said  at  last.  The  young  people,  dragging  the  re- 
luctant Willy  with  them,  had  long  since  deserted 
the  neighbourhood  of  the  sofa  and  were  now  gath- 
ered about  the  piano.  Their  taste  in  music  was  ex- 
pressed by  the  latest  musical  comedy,  and  Willy, 
whose  voice  was  quite  untrained,  was  singing  to 
Eva's  accompaniment,  while  Archibald  Flowerdew, 
seated  a  little  to  one  side,  looked  on  in  languid  con- 
tent. 

"  Well,"  said  Minty,  seizing  her  opportunity,  "  I 
don't  know  that  I  did,  say  a  year  ago;  but  circum- 
stances alter  cases." 

Colonel  Smart  turned  his  jade-green  eyes  upon 
her,  and  there  was  a  look  of  affection  in  the  smile 
that  narrowed  their  lids.  If  a  woman  is  a  good 
wife,  mother,  and  manager,  if  she  goes  regularly  to 
church  and  pays  her  bills,  men  are  apt  to  accredit 
her  with  all  the  other  virtues.  William  Smart 
would  as  soon  have  suspected  his  mother's  verac- 
ity as  that  of  his  sister-in-law.  He  had  known 
her  for  four  and  twenty  years,  and  had  learnt 
to  think  her  admirable  in  all  the  relationships  of 
life. 

"  Ah,"  he  said  pleasantly,  and  waited  for  her  to 
continue.  He  could  listen  as  well  as  talk. 

;<  You  remember  how  the  children  chaffed  me  on 
Sunday  about  the  fortune  which  they  declared  my 
mother  had  left  me  in  her  desk  ?  " 

"  I  remember  something  about  it,  yes." 

"  Mother  gave  me  the  desk  when  she  was  dying, 


154  TREASURE    TROVE 

and  it  proved  to  be  half  full  of  bits  of  coloured 
glass,  cut  like  the  stones  you  shewed  us  just  now. 
I  didn't  tell  the  children,  I  just  locked  it  up  again 
and  put  it  away;  but  I've  often  wondered  about  it, 
and  now  that  you've  told  me  all  this  about  mines 
and  gemming  and  so  forth,  I  cannot  help  thinking 
that  what  I  took  for  coloured  glass  may  be  some- 
thing very  different." 

The  Colonel  was  politeness  itself.  "  I  should  like 
to  see  them,"  he  said  in  his  pleasant  non-committal 
voice.  He  did  not  think  it  likely  that  his  sister-in- 
law  would  have  a  hoard  of  precious  stones,  that  such 
good  things  would  be  found  in  Eastham ;  her  treas- 
ure probably  consisted  of  beads  that  the  older  woman 
had  imagined  to  be  valuable,  coloured  quartz  or 
pebble,  bits  of  clear  amber,  polished  fragments  of 
rock  crystal. 

"  I  will  fetch  them,  but "  she  glanced  towards 

the  group  at  the  piano.  "  Well,  I  should  prefer  to 
shew  them  to  you  in  the  dining-room.  Eva  dear," 
and  she  raised  her  voice,  ruthlessly  interrupting  a 
song,  "  your  uncle  and  I  are  going  into  the  other 
room  to  talk  business." 

"  Very  well,  Mother,"  and  the  girl  struck  another 
chord.  She  played  with  expression  and  inaccuracy ; 
but  as  her  lover's  ear  was  defective,  it  hardly  mat- 
tered. The  pink-shaded  candles  hanging  on  the 
piano  threw  a  warm  light  over  her  young  figure, 
but  left  the  pretty  dreamy  face  in  shadow.  It  would 
not  be  long  now  before  Archie  Flowerdew  put  the 


TREASURE    TROVE  155 

question  which  had  risen  from  his  heart  to  his  lips 
and  which  was  trembling  there.  He  was  only  wait- 
ing for  an  opportunity  to  speak. 

Colonel  Smart  glanced  at  her  as  he  followed  his 
hostess  out  of  the  room.  Willy  was  his  heir,  but 
he  must  leave  something  to  this  charming  niece  of 
his,  this  good  girl  who  was  about  to  do  exactly  what 
was  expected  of  her.  At  any  rate,  he  would  choose 
her  a  handsome  wedding  present,  or— or  should  it 
be  a  cheque? 

Mrs.  Smart's  feet  fell  lightly  on  the  stair  carpet 
as  she  went  up  to  her  room.  Her  heart  was  dancing 
with  joy  and  triumph,  for  the  unexpected  had  hap- 
pened, and  she  could  now  see  a  way  out  of  her  diffi- 
culties. As  to  the  morality  of  what  she  was  about, 
she  had  not  the  time  even  if  she  had  had  the  will  to 
consider  it.  She  was  doing  her  best  for  the  chil- 
dren, and  if  the  ways  in  which  she  set  her  feet  were 
devious,  she  was  scarcely  aware  of  it.  What  mat- 
tered was  that  she  should  dispose  of  her  find  to  the 
best  advantage,  that  she  should  make  the  most  of 
the  opportunity  suddenly  presented  to  her.  How 
lucky  it  was  that  she  had  thought  of  forcing  the 
innumerable  stones,  little  and  big,  out  of  their  set- 
tings, and  that  she  had  persevered  until  they  were 
all  free! 

She  lifted  down  the  desk  and  unlocked  it,  raising 
the  rounded  lid  and  letting  down  the  front.  In  the 
cavity  thus  discovered  lay  a  little  row  of  chip  boxes, 
seven  of  them,  and  a  few  loose  stones.  The  woman 


156  TREASURE   TROVE 

hesitated  for  a  moment,  and  then  feeling  intuitively 
that  some  of  the  gems,  owing  to  their  size  and  shape, 
might  be  recognisable,  she  put  aside  the  big  ame- 
thyst, the  heart-shaped  opal,  the  one  pearl  and  a 
certain  large  diamond,  which  had  previously  adorned 
the  centre  of  the  tiara.  These,  until  she  could  find 
a  use  for  them,  might  lie  in  one  of  the  velvet  parti- 
tions of  her  insignificant  jewel-case.  Their  pres- 
ence there  would  not  be  likely  to  arouse  suspicion, 
for  it  would  never  occur  to  the  ordinary  suburban 
mind  that  they  were  of  value. 

Carrying  the  desk  carefully  in  two  hands,  that 
she  might  not  disarrange  the  order  of  the  seven 
boxes,  Mrs.  Smart  went  down  to  the  dining-room. 
It  was  a  blue  evening  in  May,  and  the  laburnums  on 
each  side  of  the  two  gates  were  hung  with  tassels 
of  pale  gold.  Mrs.  Smart  had  an  almond  tree  in 
her  garden,  but  its  pink  petals  were  all  shed  and  it 
was  now  full  of  slender  green  shoots.  It  stood  mid- 
way between  the  two  gates,  flanked  on  one  side  by 
a  red  hawthorn,  on  the  other  by  a  white;  and  be- 
yond these  the  heavy  purple  lilac  hung  over  in 
buxom  clusters. 

The  Colonel,  attracted  by  the  earthy  smell  of 
spring,  had  gone  to  the  window,  and  now  stood  lis- 
tening to  the  song  of  a  distant  nightingale,  a  smile 
curving  but  not  parting  his  lips.  During  the  few 
minutes  of  Minty's  absence  he  had  gone  on  a  long 
journey,  and  the  stars  above  his  head  were  no  longer 
those  of  northern  skies.  He  was  a  determined  opti- 


TREASURE   TROVE  157 

mist,  but  the  years  he  had  left  behind  had  been  very 
good. 

"  Why  didn't  you  turn  up  the  gas  ?  "  cried  his 
sister-in-law,  bustling  in.  It  was  long  since  she  had 
stood  staring  out  into  the  moonshine  and  starlight 
of  a  spring  evening. 

The  soldier  came  forward  quickly.  "  It's  many 
years,"  he  said,  "  since  I  last  heard  the  nightingale," 
and  as  the  spark  of  light  leapt  up  in  the  chandelier, 
revealing  the  commonplace  comfort  of  the  room,  the 
contrast  seemed  to  draw  a  veil  over  the  poetry  of 
the  night,  to  close  a  window  between  themselves  and 
the  air  so  fresh  and  sweet  after  the  rain,  to  deepen 
into  mere  mirk  and  blackness  the  royal  blue  of  the 
skies.  Disillusioned,  he  put  out  his  hand  for  the 
desk.  Its  brass  bands,  its  highly  polished  wood,  its 
little  gilt  lock,  were,  he  thought,  the  embodiment  of 
prose. 

"  I  feel  sure  that  mother  thought  these  things 
were  valuable,"  Minty  said  deprecatingly.  It  was 
evident  to  her  that  in  his  own  mind  he  had  pre- 
judged the  stones. 

Colonel  Smart  picked  up  the  first  of  the  little  row 
of  boxes  and  turned  it  over  on  to  the  terra-cotta 
tablecloth.  His  first  impression  was  that  the  heap 
of  dark  blue  stones  was  certainly  either  glass  or 
paste,  but  when  he  had  examined  one  or  two  he 
changed  his  mind.  "  Why,"  he  cried  with  a  little 
gasp  of  surprise,  "  I  believe  these  are  sapphires,  yes, 
really  sapphires,"  and  he  picked  up  the  second  box, 


158  TREASURE   TROVE 

the  box  which  held  the  rubies,  and  treated  it  in  like 
fashion.  "  Rubies,  as  I  live,"  he  said,  his  wonder 
growing,  "and  these  others — but  they  are  dia- 
monds !  Heavens,  what  a  find !  " 

Mrs.  Smart  turned  up  the  other  burners  of  the 
gas.  She  was  of  course  quite  collected,  but  she 
looked  pleased  and  elated.  Colonel  Smart,  now 
more  than  interested,  went  on  with  his  examination 
of  the  gems.  "  These  diamonds  are  very  fine,"  he 
said.  "  White  too,  by  Jove !  I  can't  spot  a  yellow 
one  among  them.  But  I  must  see  them  by  daylight. 
And  what  are  these?  Cats'-eyes?  No,  star  sap- 
phires— good  ones,  too.  What  luck !  "  He  paused 
for  a  moment  and  turned  to  look  at  her.  "  And 
you  never  knew,"  he  said.  She  had  been  left  a  little 
fortune,  and  had  mistaken  gold  for  dross,  precious 
stones  for  coloured  glass.  What  a  strange  world  it 
was! 

"  Then  they  are  real  ?  " 

"  Real?  By  the  Lord  Harry,  I  should  just  think 
they  are ! " 

"  I  wonder,"  said  Mrs.  Smart,  a  quiver  which  it 
was  beyond  her  to  control,  sounding  in  her  voice. 
"  I  wonder  where  mother  got  them  ?  " 

"Who  was  your  mother?"  inquired  the  Colo- 
nel. 

"  She  was  the  daughter  of  a  Norfolk  farmer  and 
she  married  a  lawyer." 

"  How  did  she  come  to  be  farming  that  little 
place  at  Ashwater  ?  " 


TREASURE    TROVE  159 

"  That  was  after  father's  death.  She  wasn't  the 
sort  of  woman  to  sit  with  her  hands  in  her  lap, 
and  she  liked  looking  after  chickens  and  cows  and 
so  forth." 

"  I  see.  Then,  of  course,  the  stones  may  have 
belonged  to  your  father,  and  she  may  or  may  not 
have  been  aware  of  their  value."  He  paused,  star- 
ing at  the  vari-coloured  heaps  upon  the  table.  "  Yet 
it  is  hardly  the  collection  of  a  connoisseur." 

"  No  ?  "  said  Minty  innocently,  but  he  did  not  en- 
lighten her  further. 

"  I  suppose  she  never  told  you  anything  about 
them?" 

"  Never.  Mother  was  a  great  one  for  keeping 
things  to  herself." 

"  Ah,  so  you  didn't  know  of  their  existence?  " 

"  Not  before  she  gave  them  to  me." 

"  It's  very  queer,"  said  Colonel  Smart,  and 
stroked  his  shaven  chin,  "  but  after  all,  how  she 
came  by  these  stones  hardly  matters  to  us,  the  main 
thing  is  that  they  are  here.  You  are  a  lucky  woman, 
Minty;  these  bits  of  coloured  crystal  are  worth  a 
small  fortune." 

Mrs.  Smart  drew  a  deep  breath.  "  Not  really," 
she  said. 

"  Several  thousand  pounds !  " 

The  woman's  heart  throbbed  wildly  for  a  few 
seconds. 

"  Several  thousand  pounds,"  she  murmured  in 
awe  and  wonder.  "  To  think  of  it — several  thou- 


160  TREASURE    TROVE 

sand  pounds !  "  No  wonder  the  burglar  had  come 
back. 

Colonel  Smart  drew  one  of  the  green  leather 
chairs  up  to  the  table,  and  with  the  aid  of  a  pocket 
lens  settled  down  to  a  more  systematic  examina- 
tion of  the  stones.  It  was  evident  that  the  mere 
sight  of  them  had  given  him  pleasure,  that  he  was 
glad  they  belonged  to  and  would  enrich  a  member 
of  the  family.  Minty,  seated  opposite  to  him, 
watched  him  for  some  time  in  silence.  The  fer- 
ment of  excitement  into  which  she  had  been  thrown 
was  being  slowly  clarified  by  other  considerations. 

"  The  stones  may,  as  you  say,  be  valuable,"  she 
remarked  at  last,  "  but  I  feel  rather  helpless.  I 
suppose  they  ought  to  be  sold  ?  " 

"  Of  course." 

"  I  thought  so ;  but — well,  I  should  not  know  how 
to  set  about  it." 

"  But  I  do."  The  Colonel  glanced  up  from  an 
emerald  he  was  examining,  a  good-sized  stone 
which  had  delighted  him,  in  that  it  was  flawless. 
"  I've  two  appointments  in  Monday  to  shew  the 
stones  I  bought  in  Ceylon  and  Burmah  and  Aus- 
tralia and  Brazil  and  Columbia.  If  we  can  come 
to  terms,  I  may  sell  them  the  greater  part  of  what 
I've  brought  home." 

"Yes?" 

"  And  I  could  dispose  of  yours  at  the  same  time." 

"Could  you?" 

"  Why  certainly." 


TREASURE   TROVE  161 

Mrs.  Smart  meant  to  close  with  the  offer,  was 
indeed  only  too  thankful  to  have  received  it,  and 
yet  she  hesitated.  "  But — you  see,  I  don't  know 
anything  about  these  stones." 

"  No-o,  no  you  don't,"  he  said,  and  pushed  the 
heap  of  diamonds  about  with  a  meditative  fore- 
finger. "  Still  I  can't  see  that  that  would  matter. 
These,  with  the  exception  of  the  diamonds,  are  prob- 
ably Eastern  stones,  the  rubies  coming  from  Bur- 
mah  and  the  various  sapphires  from  Ceylon.  I  am 
just  home  from  those  parts,  and  what  more  natural 
than  for  me  to  be  doing  business  for  a  friend  as 
well  as  for  myself?  As  to  the  diamonds,"  he 
paused,  and  picking  up  a  peculiarly  bright  specimen, 
held  it  between  his  eye  and  the  light.  "  These  are 
probably  South  African  stones,  though  they  may  of 
course,  be  Brazilian." 

"  But  I  thought  Cape  diamonds  were  generally 
of  a  bad  colour?  "  It  was  all  she  knew  about  dia- 
monds and  that  only  because  an  acquaintance,  shew- 
ing her  a  little  brooch,  had  emphasised  the  fact  that 
the  stones  in  it  were  from  Brazil. 

The  Colonel  pulled  at  his  small  grey  moustache. 
"  You  get  as  good  stones  from  the  one  place  as  from 
the  other,"  he  said,  "  but  off-colour  stones  are  gen- 
erally known — it's  a  trade  name — as  Cape  diamonds. 
It  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  they  come  from 
South  Africa." 

"  I  see." 

"  Anyway,  as  far  as  these  are  concerned,  it  doesn't 


162  TREASURE    TROVE 

matter  where  they  were  found.  I'm  not  supposed 
to  know  the  history  of  my  friend's  stones." 

"No,"  said  Mrs.  Smart  thoughtfully,  "no,  of 
course  not."  She  wondered  whether  there  would 
be  any  danger  in  thus  disposing  of  her  find,  whether 
any  of  the  stones  were  chipped  or  worn  or,  as  she 
put  it  to  herself,  "  scratched."  She  did  not  know 
that  it  takes  a  diamond  to  cut  a  diamond,  that  the 
tools  which  she  had  used  were  impotent  to  mark  the 
stones.  "  At  any  rate,"  thought  she,  "  William  is 
just  the  man  to  sell  them  for  me."  And  she  was 
right  in  thinking  that  no  one,  not  even  a  diamond 
merchant,  could  doubt  his  bona  fides.  The  soldier 
was  so  evidently  what  his  appearance  proclaimed 
him,  a  shrewd,  honest,  straightforward  man  of  busi- 
ness. He  was  so  palpably  innocent  of  all  evil  intent 
that  even  if  the  stones  should  prove  to  be  damaged 
in  any  way,  no  suspicion  could  be  cast  on  him. 
"Well,"  said  Mrs.  Smart  at  length,  "though  I 
hardly  like  bothering  you,  I  should  of  course  be 
glad  if  you  could  dispose  of  them  for  me.  They 
are  of  no  use  as  they  are,  no  use  at  all." 

''  You  wouldn't  like  to  keep  one  or  two  of  them, 
enough  for  a  brooch  or  a  ring  or  something  for 
Eva?" 

But  his  sister-in-law  shook  her  head.  "  Such 
stones  would  look  out  of  place  on  either  Eva  or  my- 
self, besides,"  and  this  was  the  more  cogent  reason, 
"  everybody  would  think  they  were  paste." 

The  Colonel  laughed  at  her,  much  as  Willy  would 


TREASURE    TROVE  163 

have.  "  And  paste  is  not  respectable,  eh  ?  "  The 
lace  of  her  curtains  and  of  her  daughter's  blouses 
was  machine  made,  the  forks  she  used  were  electro, 
the  silk  of  her  best  underskirt  was  mercerised  cot- 
ton, but  these  things  did  not  matter,  it  was  only 
paste  that  was  not  respectable.  "  Well,  well,  there's 
no  knowing  where  people  will  draw  the  line." 

Mrs.  Smart  was  thinking  her  own  thoughts. 
"  The  money  will  be  very  useful,"  she  said  slowly, 
"  Willy  wants  me  to  start  him  in  business,  and  it 
is  evident  that  Eva's  husband  is  likely  to  be  a  poor 
man." 

"  An  intelligent  young  fellow !  " 

"  Oh  yes,  and  likely  to  get  on,  but  it  may  be 
something  of  a  struggle  at  first.  I  shall  be  glad," 
— a  motherly  smile  broke  up  the  heavy  lines  of  her 
face — "  I  shall  be  glad  to  be  of  use  to  them." 

The  Colonel  forgot  the  criticism  he  had  only  so 
lately  passed.  "  Yes,  yes,  of  course,"  he  cried,  his 
heart  warming  to  the  emotion  she  had  expressed. 
"  You  are  a  good  woman,  Minty,  and  I'll  sell  these 
crystals  for  you  as  soon  as  I  can,  and  for  the  utmost 
they  will  fetch." 


CHAPTER   X 

IN  front  of  The  Laurels  a  tiny  gravelled  drive  ran 
in  an  accurate  curve  from  gate  to  gate,  and  on  each 
side  of  the  three  immaculate  white  front-door  steps 
were  beds  now  blue  with  forget-me-nots  and  the 
deeper  colour  of  stiff  grey-green  iris  clumps.  To 
Colonel  Smart,  the  little  English  garden  with  its 
centre  bed  of  yellow  wallflowers  and  yellower  de- 
ronicum,  its  deep-blue  flags,  its  pale  forget-me-nots, 
and  its  smooth-shaven  borders  of  grass  was  a  never- 
ending  delight.  The  perfection  of  the  fresh  green, 
the  trimmed  edges,  the  clipped  shrubs,  all  empha- 
sised for  him  the  fact  that  after  many  years  in  the 
fierce  and  flaming  East  he  was  at  home  in  dewy, 
tree-shaded  England,  at  home  again. 

It  was  Monday  morning,  a  "  blithe  and  bonny  " 
morning,  and  he  and  Mrs.  Smart  had  gone  with 
Willy  as  far  as  the  gate.  The  early  sunshine  fell 
pleasantly  on  their  uncovered  heads,  and  a  west- 
erly wind  sweeping  over  the  tall  grasses  in  the  gin- 
distillers'  fields  was  bringing  them  the  scents  of 
May.  But  in  spite  of  its  soft  breath  and  the  sight 
of  the  ox-eyed  daisies  and  big  red  sorrel-heads,  the 
Colonel  was  frowning.  For  one  thing  the  light  was 
in  his  eyes,  and  for  another,  Willy,  as  he  turned 
away,  had  waved  a  hand  instead  of  raising  his  hat 
to  Mrs.  Smart.  The  Colonel  could  not  remember 

164 


TREASURE    TROVE  165 

ever  to  have  stood  with  his  hat  on  in  his  mother's 
presence;  but  then  his  attitude  towards  her  had 
always  been  formal  and  more  that  of  a  courtier  than 
a  son.  Still  his  nephew  "  was  very  slack,  oh  very 
slack  indeed." 

"  Surely  Willy's  birthday  comes  this  month  ?  "  he 
said,  standing  back  for  his  sister-in-law  to  pass. 

"  Yes,  on  the  2oth.     He  will  be  twenty-four." 

"  Ah,  and  it's  some  time  since  I  remembered  him 
in  anything  but  my  will.  What  shall  I  give  him, 
Minty  ?  How  about  an  order  on  my  tailor  ?  Young 
fellows  like  to  be  smart." 

Mrs.  Smart  stooped  to  uproot  a  couple  of  almost 
invisible  weeds,  groundsel  and  dandelion.  "  On 
your  tailor,  William?  "  she  asked,  lightly  accentuat- 
ing the  pronoun. 

"  Well,  I  thought  so."  He  fancied  he  was  being 
diplomatic,  but  she  had  read  his  thoughts,  and  she 
answered  him  out  of  the  wisdom  which  the  years 
had  brought. 

"  But  the  men  here  do  not  go  to  military  tailors." 

"  No,  indeed,"  said  the  Colonel. 

"  I  expect,"  pursued  Mrs.  Smart,  "  that  there  are 
other  little  things " 

"  Oh — er — well,  his  tie  isn't  exactly — and  his 
hair — I  wonder  now  where  he  gets  his  hair  cut  ?  " 

"  Yes,  his  tie  and  his  hair  and — and  perhaps  his 
ways  ?  " 

"  Oh — er — nothing  to  matter,  a  word  or  two 
from  me — but,"  with  sudden  choler,  "  he  might  at 


1 66  TREASURE    TROVE 

least  hold  the  door  open  for  his  mother  and  let  her 
pass  out  first." 

Minty  smiled  at  him.  She  both  understood  and 
remembered.  "  When  Richard  died,"  she  said,  able 
at  last  after  eight  years  to  speak  of  that  calamitous 
event  with  calmness ;  "  when  Richard  died  his 
mother  saw  the  children.  She  did  not  say  anything, 
but  it  was  evident  that  she  thought  they  were  my 
children,  that  she  did  not  mean  to  interfere  in  any 
way." 

The  great  lady's  indifference  had  rankled,  but 
Minty  had  learnt  from  it  and  was  now  applying  her 
knowledge.  "  She  left  them  to  me,  and  I  have 
brought  them  up  to  be  like  everybody  else — every- 
body that  we  know.  Richard  always  felt  out  of  it. 
He  didn't  say  so.  He  was  the  sort  of  chimney  that 
consumes  its  own  smoke;  but  that  was  how  he  felt, 

and  I  don't  want  Willy "  Her  eyes,  grateful 

and  affectionate,  dwelt  on  him,  taking  the  tiny  sting 
out  of  her  refusal.  "  No  William,  you  must  not 
give  him  an  order  on  your  tailor." 

"  Very  practical,"  thought  Colonel  Smart,  but 
something  in  him,  hereditary  and  not  to  be  ousted 
by  reason,  rebelled  against  her  decision.  "  What 
made  you  put  the  boy  into  a  stockbroker's  office  ?  " 
he  asked  discontentedly. 

"  He  couldn't  make  up  his  mind  what  he  wanted 
to  do,  and — well,  there  was  the  opening."  Open- 
ings did  not  come  every  day,  and  beggars  might  not 
be  choosers. 


TREASURE    TROVE  167 

"  But  Smarts  cannot  lead  an  indoor  life." 

There  it  was  again,  the  aristocratic  standpoint. 
Colonel  Smart  could  not  understand  that  it  did  not 
matter  what  you  were  or  what  you  did,  so  long  as 
you  could  make  a  living  by  it.  "  Richard  could," 
she  said  dubiously,  "  and  he  is  Richard's  son." 

"  And  not  in  the  least  like  him." 

Mrs.  Smart,  who  had  taken  up  her  knitting,  fin- 
ished a  line  before  she  spoke  again,  and  the  faint 
clash  of  the  needles  gave  the  Colonel  a  feeling  of 
wholesome  comfort  and  domesticity.  "  No,  he  isn't 
like  Richard,"  she  said  at  last.  The  child  who  had 
resembled  him,  the  only  one  out  of  the  three,  was 
lying  with  her  husband  in  the  graveyard  on  the  hill. 
The  little  Jocelyn  had  had  Richard's  sea-blue  eyes, 
had  been  his  father  over  again,  even  to  his  delicacy. 
Her  one  clever  child,  and  she  had  lost  him!  His 
little  tender  body,  the  body  born  of  her,  cherished 
by  her,  loved  and  fondled,  was  a  handful  of  dust, 
and  she  sat  here  working  for  those  who  remained. 
Oh,  alas,  alas,  that  she  could  do  nothing,  nothing 
at  all,  nothing  any  more  for  the  child  who  was 
dead!  The  shadow  of  an  old  sorrow  passed  into 
her  face  and  she  fell  silent,  until  the  booming  of  a 
church  clock  startled  both  her  and  her  companion. 

"  Here,  I  shall  lose  my  train,"  cried  Colonel 
Smart,  who,  like  all  leisured  Englishmen,  was  in- 
clined, having  no  real  business,  to  make  one  of  pre- 
liminaries, "where  are  those  boxes  of  yours?" 

Mrs.  Smart  hurried  off  to  fetch  them,  and  the 


i66  TREASURE    TROVE 

least  hold  the  door  open  for  his  mother  and  let  her 
pass  out  first." 

Minty  smiled  at  him.  She  both  understood  and 
remembered.  "  When  Richard  died,"  she  said,  able 
at  last  after  eight  years  to  speak  of  that  calamitous 
event  with  calmness ;  "  when  Richard  died  his 
mother  saw  the  children.  She  did  not  say  anything, 
but  it  was  evident  that  she  thought  they  were  my 
children,  that  she  did  not  mean  to  interfere  in  any 
way." 

The  great  lady's  indifference  had  rankled,  but 
Minty  had  learnt  from  it  and  was  now  applying  her 
knowledge.  "  She  left  them  to  me,  and  I  have 
brought  them  up  to  be  like  everybody  else — every- 
body that  we  know.  Richard  always  felt  out  of  it. 
He  didn't  say  so.  He  was  the  sort  of  chimney  that 
consumes  its  own  smoke;  but  that  was  how  he  felt, 

and  I  don't  want  Willy "  Her  eyes,  grateful 

and  affectionate,  dwelt  on  him,  taking  the  tiny  sting 
out  of  her  refusal.  "  No  William,  you  must  not 
give  him  an  order  on  your  tailor." 

"  Very  practical,"  thought  Colonel  Smart,  but 
something  in  him,  hereditary  and  not  to  be  ousted 
by  reason,  rebelled  against  her  decision.  "  What 
made  you  put  the  boy  into  a  stockbroker's  office  ?  " 
he  asked  discontentedly. 

"  He  couldn't  make  up  his  mind  what  he  wanted 
to  do,  and — well,  there  was  the  opening."  Open- 
ings did  not  come  every  day,  and  beggars  might  not 
be  choosers. 


TREASURE    TROVE  167 

"  But  Smarts  cannot  lead  an  indoor  life." 

There  it  was  again,  the  aristocratic  standpoint, 
Colonel  Smart  could  not  understand  that  it  did  not 
matter  what  you  were  or  what  you  did,  so  long  as 
you  could  make  a  living  by  it.  "  Richard  could," 
she  said  dubiously,  "  and  he  is  Richard's  son." 

"  And  not  in  the  least  like  him." 

Mrs.  Smart,  who  had  taken  up  her  knitting,  fin- 
ished a  line  before  she  spoke  again,  and  the  faint 
clash  of  the  needles  gave  the  Colonel  a  feeling  of 
wholesome  comfort  and  domesticity.  "  No,  he  isn't 
like  Richard,"  she  said  at  last.  The  child  who  had 
resembled  him,  the  only  one  out  of  the  three,  was 
lying  with  her  husband  in  the  graveyard  on  the  hill. 
The  little  Jocelyn  had  had  Richard's  sea-blue  eyes, 
had  been  his  father  over  again,  even  to  his  delicacy. 
Her  one  clever  child,  and  she  had  lost  him!  His 
little  tender  body,  the  body  born  of  her,  cherished 
by  her,  loved  and  fondled,  was  a  handful  of  dust, 
and  she  sat  here  working  for  those  who  remained. 
Oh,  alas,  alas,  that  she  could  do  nothing,  nothing 
at  all,  nothing  any  more  for  the  child  who  was 
dead!  The  shadow  of  an  old  sorrow  passed  into 
her  face  and  she  fell  silent,  until  the  booming  of  a 
church  clock  startled  both  her  and  her  companion. 

"  Here,  I  shall  lose  my  train,"  cried  Colonel 
Smart,  who,  like  all  leisured  Englishmen,  was  in- 
clined, having  no  real  business,  to  make  one  of  pre- 
liminaries, "where  are  those  boxes  of  yours?" 

Mrs.  Smart  hurried  off  to  fetch  them,  and  the 


1 68  TREASURE    TROVE 

thrill  of  an  exciting  present  pushed  the  old  mem- 
ories aside.  She  felt  that  this  business  upon  which 
she  was  engaged  was  very  probably  one  of  risk.  But 
'  nothing  venture,  nothing  have/  and  if  she  and 
hers  were  to  benefit  from  the  treasure  trove,  it  must 
be  sold.  Colonel  Smart  had  accepted  her  story  and 
was  unsuspiciously  ready  to  try  and  dispose  of  the 
stones.  He,  though  learned  in  gems,  had  seen  noth- 
ing strange  about  hers ;  why  then  should  she,  meet- 
ing trouble  half-way,  imagine  that  others  might? 

"  I'll  only  take  three  of  those  boxes,"  he  said 
when  she  reappeared  with  the  desk ;  "  put  all  the 
sapphires  into  one,  the  diamonds  into  the  next,  and 
the  rubies,  emeralds  and  opals  into  the  third,"  and 
his  quick  hands  hovered  over  the  little  boxes,  pour- 
ing the  stones  from  some  into  the  others,  hastily  se- 
lecting and  arranging.  "  There,  that  will  do,"  and 
he  stowed  them  away  in  pockets  specially  protected 
from  thievish  fingers,  pockets  of  his  own  design,  and 
yet  made  by  that  high  and  mighty  tailor  in  Pic- 
cadilly. 

Before  the  thin  leaves  of  the  deronicums  had 
begun  to  wilt  under  the  ardour  of  the  sun,  he  was 
slowly  climbing  a  by  no  means  immaculate  stone 
staircase  in  search  of  Messrs.  Rubenstein  and  Ruben- 
stein.  Their  office  was  on  the  third  floor,  and  he 
found  them  facing  one  another  across  a  narrow 
table,  two  little  men,  no  darker  than  himself,  but 
with  high,  thin  foreign  voices,  men  so  much  alike 
that  they  might  have  been  twins.  The  friend  in 


TREASURE    TROVE  169 

Australia  who  had  given  him  an  introduction  to 
them  had  vouched  for  their  honesty,  but  had  ad- 
mitted that  they  were  sharp  business  men.  "  They 
like  money,"  he  had  said,  "  and  they  aren't  giving 
any  away." 

The  Colonel,  seating  himself  at  one  end  of  the 
table,  began  to  explain  his  business.  "  Mine  are 
picked  stones,"  he  said,  "  and  I've  bought  them  from 
all  sorts  of  people,  in  all  sorts  of  places." 

"  Yes?  "  said  the  brothers.  They  were  naturally 
vivid  and  eager  personalities,  but  they  sat  like  stone 
Buddhas  and  with  much  the  same  look  of  quiet, 
smiling  expectancy. 

"  But  before  I  show  them  to  you,"  continued 
Colonel  Smart,  "  I  would  like  you  to  look  at  some 
parcels  of  gems,  with  the  selling  of  which  a  friend 
has  entrusted  me.  They  are  carefully  matched 
stones  and  must,  I  fancy,  have  taken  a  long  time  to 
collect."  He  drew  a  chip  box  out  of  one  of  those 
hidden  pockets,  and  opening  it,  tumbled  out  upon 
a  tray  before  him,  a  variegated  heap  of  sapphires. 
"  There  are  twenty-eight  matched  stones  of  each 
kind,"  he  said,  "  enough  to  make  four  rivieres," 
and  he  pushed  the  tray  forward  until  it  rested  mid- 
way between  the  brothers. 

In  the  little  office  a  ray  of  the  May  sunshine  had 
found  its  way  through  the  dusty  window.  Falling 
on  the  stones,  it  glorified  them  into  all  the  colours 
of  the  sea,  but  Theodore  Rubenstein  signed  impa- 
tiently to  his  brother,  and  the  pull  of  a  blind  cord 


i;o       TREASURE  TROVE 

shut  out  the  fairy  brightness.  Then,  changing  with 
a  swiftness  that  was  almost  sudden,  from  inscrutable 
Eastern  gods  into  sharp  men  of  business,  the 
brothers  fell  to  work.  The  stones,  blue  green  and 
white,  were  sorted  into  separate  heaps,  delicate  in- 
struments were  brought  out,  and  the  experts  began 
to  test,  to  weigh,  to  consider. 

"  A  suspicion  of  cloud,"  said  Theodore,  who, 
though  he  did  not  look  it,  was  the  elder,  and  he 
passed  a  stone  across  the  table. 

"  Almost  a  streak,"  said  Max  shortly,  as  he  re- 
turned it.  His  head,  the  top  of  which  was  level 
from  front  to  back,  with  sloping  sides,  reminding 
Colonel  Smart  of  the  roof  of  a  Gothic  nave,  had 
grown  through  the  hair  thereof,  and  the  shining 
baldness  of  it  gave  him  an  undeserved  look  of  mid- 
dle age. 

But  for  the  most  part  the  men  said  very  little, 
applying  themselves  to  their  work  in  an  eager  si- 
lence. It  was  evident  that  the  understanding  be- 
tween them  was  perfect,  and  that  a  glance  sufficed  to 
show  the  one  what  the  other  thought. 

"  These  stones,"  said  Max  at  length,  "  have  per- 
haps been  used — set?  " 

"  I  really  know  nothing  about  them,"  returned 
the  Colonel  with  convincing  candour.  "  I  was  not 
told  their  history,  I  was  merely  commissioned  to 
sell  them." 

"  Ah  yes,"  said  Theodore  Rubenstein  thought- 
fully, as  he  swept  the  sapphires  into  a  little  heap 


TREASURE   TROVE  171 

and  pushed  them  towards  his  client ;  "  and  have  you 
only  sapphires  ?  " 

Colonel  Smart  brought  out  the  diamonds,  men- 
tioned the  number  which  the  little  receptacle  con- 
tained, and  handed  it  over  to  the  brothers.  He 
then  counted  the  sapphires  back  into  their  box  and 
returned  it  to  his  pocket.  "  I  have  also  some  rubies, 
a  few  opals,  and  one  or  two  emeralds." 

"Are  all  these  diamonds  square  cut?"  asked 
Theodore  Rubenstein  casually,  as  he  separated  the 
stones  from  one  another  with  a  thick,  square-tipped 
finger,  and  proceeded  to  answer  his  own  ques- 
tion. "  No,  I  see  the  smaller  are  round,  but  all 
brilliants,  ye-es  all,  not  a  rose  among  them."  And 
again  the  brothers  fell  to  work  with  their  delicate 
instruments,  among  which  not  the  least  delicate 
were  their  own  hard,  bright  eyes  and  cunning  hands. 
Presently  Max  pushed  a  stone  aside.  "  Off  colour," 
he  said. 

"  Ah,  I  missed  that,"  murmured  the  Colonel. 

The  other  looked  up.  "  Oh,  they  have  been  care- 
fully chosen.  Your  friend  knew  what  he  was 
about." 

"  Glad  you  like  them." 

Theodore  Rubenstein  flicked  out  his  fingers  witti 
a  little  foreign  gesture.  "  We  like  them,  oh  yes, 
but  stones  of  this  kind  are  not  much  in  our  line. 
We  make  a  speciality  of  procuring  unusual  gems, 
like  those  of  which  you  spoke;  we  do  not  do  much 
in  parcels  of  diamonds."  He  pushed  the  stones  to- 


172  TREASURE    TROVE 

gather  and  passed  them  back  to  Colonel  Smart. 
"  But  if  you  would  let  us  see  yours?  " 

The  Colonel  felt  vaguely  disappointed.  He  had 
thought  it  would  be  perfectly  easy  to  dispose  of 
Minty's  hoard,  and  yet  the  first  firm  to  whom  he 
had  taken  it  was  making  difficulties.  But  he  did  not 
lose  faith.  They  might  reconsider  their  decision,  or 
even  if  they  did  not,  he  could  take  it  to  someone 
else.  He  drew  out  a  pair  of  cat's-eyes  and  a  large 
black  opal  and  set  them  down  before  the  brothers. 

"  Any  more?  "  said  Theodore. 

Almost  reluctantly  their  owner  produced  a  big 
flawless  ruby,  a  small  blue  diamond  and  two  gem 
amethysts  of  perfect  colour. 

"  Any  more  ?  "  said  Theodore. 

"  Not  with  me.  I  thought  I'd  see  what  I  could 
do  with  these." 

The  Rubensteins  examined  them  carefully  and 
interchanged  a  quick  glance  of  pleasure.  They  did 
not  find  it  necessary  to  depreciate  stones  which  they 
intended  to  buy,  for  after  all,  if  the  seller  were  not 
amiably  inclined,  they  could  always  refuse  to  do 
business  with  him;  and  their  credit  was  so  good, 
their  standing  so  high,  that  he  was  more  likely  to 
regret  it  than  they. 

"  We  shall  be  delighted  to  make  you  an  offer  for 
these,"  they  said.  "  We  must  beg  you  to  excuse  us 
while  we  discuss  it." 

The  Colonel  looked  after  them  as  they  went  out 
of  the  room,  and  then,  almost  as  if  ashamed  of  the 


TREASURE   TROVE  173 

action,  he  drew  the  seven  stones  towards  him,  and 
with  lingering  fingers  ranged  them  in  a  line — the 
blue  diamond,  the  ruby,  the  cat's-eyes,  the  ame- 
thysts, and  last,  because  he  liked  it  best,  the  strange 
black  opal.  He  must  sell  these  stones  of  his,  must 
see  them  pass  into  alien  hands,  but  it  went  against 
the  grain.  He  remembered,  as  part  of  his  life's  his- 
tory, where  he  had  found  each  one  of  them,  how 
he  had  waited  and  bargained,  and  sunk  into  each  a 
little  more  of  his  capital.  Like  pictures,  he  saw  the 
places  and  the  persons,  the  whole  scenes  of  their  ac- 
quisition. He  thought  of  his  secret  joy  in  them,  of 
how  he  had  carried  them  about  with  him,  fed  his 
eyes  upon  them,  and  learnt  from  their  perfection  to 
judge  more  accurately  of  other  stones.  And  now 
he  must  let  them  go. 

The  Rubensteins  had  little  difficulty  in  determin- 
ing what  they  should  offer  the  Colonel  for  his  rare 
and  precious  gems.  "  And  the  first  lot  ?  "  said  Max. 
He  did  not  want  to  be  mixed  up  in  anything  shady, 
but  it  seemed  a  pity,  unless  it  were  necessary,  to  let 
those  sapphires  go. 

"  Wouldn't  touch  'em,"  said  his  more  cautious 
elder.  "  Nice  stones  of  course,  but — well — where's 
their  settings  ?  " 

"  The  old  chap's  honest  enough." 

"  Too  honest,"  commented  Theodore. 

The  brothers  returned  to  find  Colonel  Smart  still 
staring  regretfully  at  his  treasures.  There  had  been 
a  time  when  they,  too,  had  cared  for  precious 


176  TREASURE   TROVE 

the  usual  rubbish.  He  had  no  doubts,  and  after 
some  consideration  offered  to  take  the  lot.  He 
would  give  a  good  price,  as  much  as  the  Colonel 
could  expect ;  and  his  surprise  when  the  seller  proved 
to  have  his  own  opinions  on  that  subject,  was  un- 
concealed. 

"  Five  thousand,  or  I  take  them  elsewhere !  " 
But  five  thousand !  What  a  sum !  No,  no,  really 
he  could  not  think  of  it.  The  stones  were  not  worth 
it.  The  diamonds  were  fine,  and,  oh  yes,  of  the 
first  water,  and  some  of  them  were  a  fair  size ;  and 
the  emeralds — ah,  flawless  were  they?  But  the 
rubies  were  very  small,  and  as  to  the  opals,  you 
could  scarcely  call  them  pin-fire.  So  he  argued, 
trying  to  depreciate  the  gems,  seeking  a  good  bar- 
gain ;  but  in  the  end,  as  the  stones  were  really  cheap 
at  five  thousand  pounds,  the  Colonel  had  his  way. 

To  Minty's  astonished  delight,  therefore,  that 
sum  of  money  was  presently  lodged  to  her  credit  in 
the  National  Provincial  Bank.  Mr.  Carvalho  made 
a  pretty  profit  on  the  transaction,  Colonel  Smart 
rubbed  his  hands  together  and  congratulated  him- 
self on  a  good  day's  work,  and  the  stones  in  small 
parcels  were,  as  opportunity  offered,  sold  back  to 
the  trade.  The  treasure  trove  had  been  safely  com- 
muted into  money;  and  the  money  was  Minty's,  to 
be  used  for  the  promotion  of  her  children's  hap- 
piness and  to  bring  them  success  in  life.  And 
would  it?. 


PART  II 


CHAPTER   XI 

SOME  time  later  that  year  Mrs.  Smart,  looking  back, 
saw  the  past  summer  as  one  unusually  full  of  events. 
She  had  not  expected  anything  from  the  passing 
months,  and  lo,  they  had  brought  her  Eva's  engage- 
ment and  her  son's  start  in  life. 

After  the  termination  of  Colonel  Smart's  mo- 
mentous visit,  Willy  had  been  unexpectedly  released 
from  uncongenial  toil  for  the  space  of  a  fortnight. 
He  had  made  use  of  his  liberty  to  wheel  his  bicycle 
out  of  the  front  gate,  mount  and  ride  away,  no  one, 
not  even  himself,  knowing  whither.  Mrs.  Smart 
and  Eva  had  watched  him  start,  and  the  latter  had 
then  gone  up  to  do  some  packing.  She  had  prom- 
ised to  stay  with  an  old  schoolfellow  who  was  now 
living  at  Surbiton. 

"  But  I  don't  like  leaving  you,  Mother,''  she  said 
affectionately,  when  Mrs.  Smart  came  in  to  help  her 
fold  some  skirts.  "  You  will  be  all  alone." 

"Well,  I  don't  know,"  returned  Mrs.  Smart. 
"  For  one  reason  and  another  I've  never  yet  found 
time  to  go  through  your  Granny's  things.  I  might 
take  the  opportunity  of  your  both  being  away  to 
run  over  to  Ashwater  for  a  day  or  two." 

"  Why  yes,"  said  Eva,  "  so  you  might." 

"  Tamsin  would  be  glad  to  have  me,  but " 

179 


i8o  TREASURE    TROVE 

She  did  not  finish  the  sentence.  It  would  be  her 
first  visit  to  the  farm  since  her  mother's  death,  and 
how  could  she  bear  the  emptiness  of  the  rooms? 

"  You  will  have  to  go  some  day,"  said  her  sym- 
pathetic but  sensible  daughter. 

"  And  if  a  thing  has  to  be  done  as  well  get  it 
over.  Well,  yes,  dearie,  I  suppose  so." 

"  What  has  Tamsin  done  with  Granny's  things?  " 

"  Put  them  all  into  her  room  and  turned  the  key. 
I  have  to  decide  what  is  to  become  of  them." 

"  I  suppose  there  must  be  rather  an  accumulation. 
Don't  get  rid  of  anything  that  is  quaint  and  old." 

Mrs.  Smart  smiled  indulgently.  Eva  had  been 
bitten  with  the  craze  of  the  day  and  her  mother 
would  humour  her.  Why  not,  indeed  ?  What  were 
mothers  for  if  not  to  gratify  the  whims  and  fancies 
of  their  children,  those  whims  and  fancies  at  which 
the  world  scoffs.  "  I'll  bring  you  back  all  the  old 
rubbish  I  can  lay  my  hands  on." 

"  And  I  shall  know  that  it  is  really  old,"  said 
the  girl  with  satisfaction.  "  What  people  buy  is  so 
often  only  a  copy.  But  if  you  go,  Mother,  how 
will  you  arrange  about  Annie  and  the  house  ?  " 

"  Give  her  a  holiday  and  shut  it  up.  The  police 
can  be  trusted  to  keep  an  eye  upon  it." 

"  Can  be  trusted  now,"  said  Eva,  and  proceeded 
to  lay  a  cool-looking  green  linen  frock  on  the  top 
of  some  others. 

"  I  wonder  if  you  will  go  on  the  river  at  all  ?  " 
said  Mrs.  Smart,  eyeing  it  thoughtfully.  She  felt 


TREASURE    TROVE  181 

that  the  linen  frock  would  look  well  with  a  back- 
ground of  bright  cushions  in  a  long  river  boat. 

"  Oh — er — yes,  I  think  so,"  answered  Eva,  her 
face  grown  suddenly  hot  with  colour.  "  I  mean,  it's 
likely,  Mattie's  husband  being  a  rowing  man." 

But  the  blush  had  told  Mrs.  Smart  all  that  she 
wanted  to  know.  She  turned  away  with  a  little 
sigh,  for  where  is  the  mother  who  thinks  her  daugh- 
ter's chosen  worthy  of  the  little  white  soul  and  body 
that  she  has  cherished,  watched  over,  kept  clean 
and  pure  through  the  years  of  childish  and  girlish 
development  ?  And  yet  Eva  must  marry.  "  But 
why  this  man  ?  "  asked  Mrs.  Smart  of  herself,  not 
knowing  that  her  mother  and  her  mother's  mother 
before  her,  had  breathed  the  same  question. 

As  soon  as  arrangements  could  be  made,  and  they 
merely  necessitated  a  postcard  to  Tamsin,  a  con- 
versation with  Annie  Price  and  some  locking  of 
cupboards,  The  Laurels  was  handed  over  to  the  care 
of  the  local  police,  and  Mrs.  Smart  and  Eva,  their 
luggage  having  preceded  them  in  the  outside  por- 
ter's cart,  toiled  up  the  hot  and  shadeless  High 
Street  on  their  way  to  the  station. 

Mrs.  Smart  saw  her  daughter  off  and  then  bought 
herself  a  ticket  for  Ashwater.  Never  before  had  she 
so  unwillingly  set  her  face  in  that  direction;  and  it 
was  not  altogether  the  emptiness  of  the  rooms  which 
made  her  reluctant.  That  would  merely  reawaken 
grief,  set  old  memories  a-throb,  fill  her  with  a  melan- 
choly not  wholly  lacking  in  sweetness  and  resigna- 


182  TREASURE    TROVE 

tion.  What  she  feared  was  lest  the  accustomed 
places  might  seem  too  full — too  full  of  Tamsin  Tin- 
ney,  the  erstwhile  servant.  How  could  she  endure 
to  see  this  stranger  in  her  mother's  chair,  to  hear  her 
giving  orders,  she  who  had  hitherto  spent  her  days 
in  receiving  and  obeying  them.  Mrs.  Smart  felt 
that  the  position  must  be  difficult,  might  be  impos- 
sible, and  her  courage  failed  her  a  little  at  the 
thought  of  passing  three  days  under  the  roof  she 
still  thought  of  as  home,  of  being  for  three  days 
Tamsin's  guest. 

But  it  is  the  unexpected  that  happens  and  when 
she  alighted  at  Ashwater,  it  was  to  find  that  Tam- 
sin had  come  in  to  meet  her.  The  day  was  dry  and 
hot,  one  of  those  heavy  days  when  every  passing 
vehicle  raises  a  pale  brown  smoke  of  dust,  of  a  dust 
which  hangs  in  the  air,  and  only  very  slowly  sinks 
through  it  on  to  blade  and  leaf.  Tamsin  was  in  a 
black  dress  which  had  been  lavishly  banded  and 
flounced  with  crape,  but  its  effect  was  spoilt  by  the 
sprinkling  of  powdered  road  which  had  settled  on 
her  during  her  walk  from  the  farm  to  the  station. 

"  Ah  do  be  glad  to  see  'ee,"  she  said  heartily,  her 
small  work-worn  hand  clutching  Mrs.  Smart's,  her 
old-apple  face  creased  into  welcoming  smiles,  and 
the  other  saw  at  once  that  this  was  no  'Jack  in 
office,'  but  a  woman  who  through  long  months  had 
been  suffering  from  that  emptiness  of  the  rooms 
which  Minty  knew  of  and  dreaded.  "  'Ee  won't  go 
back  'fore  you'm  obliged  to,  will  'ee?  " 


TREASURE    TROVE  183 

"  I'm  afraid  I  cannot  stay  more  than  a  day  or 
two,"  Mrs.  Smart  said,  as  they  made  their  way  out 
of  the  station,  the  two  women  carrying  between 
them  the  tiny  rush  case  which  held  the  visitor's  be- 
longings. In  Eastham  Mrs.  Smart  could  not  have 
helped  to  carry  her  luggage,  but  here  it  was  differ- 
ent. By  stepping  out  of  the  train  at  Ashwater,  she 
had  slipped  back  to  the  class  in  which  people  were 
not  ashamed  to  be  seen  doing  their  own  work. 

"  Not  more'n  a  day  or  two?  "  echoed  Tamsin  dis- 
appointedly. "  Why,  the  sortin'  'ull  take  'ee  all  that 
and  more.  'Ee'll  have  no  time,  'ardly,  to  goo  round 
and  see  what  Ah  bin  doin'.  Every  time  as  Ah  did 
this  and  that,  Ah  thought  Ah'll  shew  it  Miss  Minty 
when  her  comes."  She  looked  up  wistfully  at  the 
taller  woman.  "  Ah  felt  somehow  as  Ah  did  belong 
to  shew  it  to  'ee,  seein'  as  Ah  couldn't  no  longer  to 
the  mistress." 

"  But  of  course  I  must  see  everything,"  said 
Minty  kindly.  Tamsin's  plea  was  one  that  she  did 
not  wish  to  deny,  moreover  she  had  always  been 
interested  in  the  cackling,  quacking,  grunting,  low- 
ing creatures  of  the  farm. 

The  little  Cornishwoman  brightened.  "  An  'ee'll 
tell  me  if  Ah'm  doin'  it  all  as  the  mistress  would 
have  wished,"  she  said  humbly.  It  was  evident  that 
to  her  mind  Minty  stood  in  her  mother's  shoes,  so 
evident  that  the  other's  troubled  fears  began  to  fade. 
Tamsin  was  the  kind  old  creature  she  had  always 
been;  she  claimed  no  rights,  made  herself  of  no 


1 84  TREASURE   TROVE 

importance,  and  therefore  could  be  given  what  she 
did  not  seem  aware  that  she  possessed. 

"  I  hope  everything  is  doing  well.  Last  year  the 
rats  killed  some  of  the  young  goslings,  didn't  they  ?  " 

"  'Iss,  and  Ah  killed  they ;  this  year  we've  got  a 
terr'ble  fine  lot."  And  she  began  to  explain  as  she 
would  have  done  to  her  late  mistress  the  state  of 
affairs  in  the  various  departments  of  the  farm. 
"  'Tis  most  tea-time,"  she  wound  up  at  last,  as  they 
turned  in  at  the  gate,  "  and  Ah'll  be  glad  to  get  out 
of  my  blacks,  'ee  too  likely?  Put  on  something  as 
'ee  can  go  traipsin'  about  'farm  in  and  us'll  go  out 
after." 

Mrs.  Smart,  careful  woman,  had  brought  with 
her  one  of  the  print  overalls  which  she  was  wont  to 
put  on  when  she  had  cooking  or  other  household 
work  to  do;  and  Tamsin,  who  had  returned  to  the 
rusty  clothes  of  everyday  wear,  looked  at  her  with 
approval  when  she  ever/jually  came  down  into  the 
big  raftered  kitchen.  There  everything  was  as  it 
had  been  in  her  mother's  time,  except  that  the  sew- 
ing machine  which  had  stood  to  the  right  of  the 
open  hearth  as  long  as  she  could  remember  was  no 
longer  there,  and  the  old  red  tea-service  of  Russian 
china  had  been  replaced  by  white  cups  and  saucers 
with  a  pink  edge. 

"  'Ee'll  pour  out,  won't  'ee,  Miss  Minty  ?  "  said 
Tamsin  wistfully.  She  would  like,  now  that  the 
wound  of  her  loss  was  healing,  to  see  the  daughter 
in  her  mother's  place,  to  feel  that  she  was  no  longer 


TREASURE    TROVE  185 

alone,  that  her  labours,  hopes,  e'fforts,  mattered  to 
somebody. 

|  "  Ah  no,  Tamsin,  I  couldn't,"  said  Minty  hur- 
riedly. "  I've  never  sat  there,  you  know.  I — I 
couldn't." 

Tamsin  looked  at  the  wooden  elbow  chair.  "  Nor 
Ah  can't  nayther,"  she  said  with  a  sorrowful  shake 
of  the  head.  "  Ah've  set  theer  since,"  and  she  indi- 
cated the  side  of  the  table. 

"Yes,"  said  Minty,  her  voice  full  of  sympathy 
and  understanding,  "  and  why  shouldn't  you  go  on 
doing  so  ?  "  Her  heart  had  warmed  towards  Tam- 
sin, this  respectful  and  affectionate  Tamsin. 

"  If  'ee  doan't  mind,  Ah  will,"  said  the  other,  and 
with  the  assistance  of  her  little  servant,  the  tea-tray 
which  had  been  placed  at  the  end  of  the  table,  was 
shifted,  regardless  of  bread  platter,  butter  dish  and 
saucer  of  radishes,  to  the  side  where  Tamsin  sat. 

Minty  took  her  old  place  to  the  right  of  the  chair, 
and  for  a  moment,  as  Tamsin  said  grace,  the 
strangeness  and  sadness  of  this  return  overcame  her. 
To  one  side  was  that  empty  chair;  and  above,  in 
the  room  over  their  heads,  all  her  mother's  per- 
sonal belongings  lay  waiting  for  her  to  pronounce 
upon  them,  all  the  things  which  she  had  used  so 
carefully  and  would  never  use  again.  For  the  mo- 
ment she  felt  as  if  she  and  Tamsin  were  waiting  for 
that  mother  to  come  in,  as  if  they  would  presently 
hear  her  step  on  the  brick  floor,  and  her  kindly: 
"Why,  Minty,  my  dear  child,  I  didn't  know  you 


186  TREASURE   TROVE 

were  come."  The  tears  rose  from  her  heart  to  her 
eyes,  and  she  took  the  bread  which  Tamsin  offered 
in  a  silence  which  the  other  understood.  The  time 
had  been  when  she  had  known  what  it  was  to  be 
jealous  of  her  mistress'  only  child,  but  that  was  long 
ago,  or  seemed  so  to  the  old  servant;  and  though 
jealous  of  her,  she  had  always  liked  Miss  Minty. 
Now  she  more  than  liked  her,  sharing  with  her  as 
she  did  a  few  precious  memories  and  a  common 
grief.  Once  more  she  plunged  into  talk,  but  this 
time  it  was  to  divert  her  guest's  attention  rather 
than  to  arouse  her  interest. 

The  farm  table  had  in  Mrs.  Lovell's  day  been 
plentifully  but  plainly  furnished  forth,  and  Tamsin 
had  not  made  any  change.  The  little  servant,  Susan 
Field,  sat  at  the  far  end  of  the  big  deal  table  and 
took  her  meals  with  her  mistress,  and  it  was  all 
homely  and  peaceful.  The  declining  sun  sent  long 
rays  through  the  lattice  windows  of  the  raftered 
room,  and  a  cat,  Tamsin's  one  innovation,  sat  blink- 
ing sleepily  at  the  oil  stove  which,  it  being  summer, 
had  taken  the  place  of  a  fire. 

"  Now  if  you'm  rested  Ah'll  take  'ee  round  the 
farm,"  Tamsin  said,  rising  briskly  from  her  chair 
and  signing  to  Susan  to  clear  away. 

Minty  went  with  her  hostess  into  the  vegetable 
garden,  noting  idly  that  two  fresh  hives  had  been 
added  to  the  row  by  the  herb-bed,  and  Tamsin  saw 
the  glance.  "  Mr.  Brent  have  sown  red  clover  in 
the  five-acre  lot  and  that  do  make  a  wonderful  dif- 


TREASURE   TROVE  187 

ference  to  the  honey."  She  went  towards  a  large 
tin  tub  which  had  been  fitted  with  a  front  wheel, 
hind  legs  and  shafts.  Lifting  the  last  named,  she 
began  to  trundle  it  away  towards  the  pigsties,  and 
Mrs.  Smart  followed.  "  'Ee  knaw  that  big  red 
house  up  to  station?"  said  Tamsin,  a  little  breath- 
lessly, as  she  paused  by  the  wooden  palings,  and 
with  an  old  hand-bowl  began  to  fill  the  long,  sharp- 
angled  troughs,  the  pigs  squealing,  grunting  and 
falling  over  one  another  in  their  eagerness  to  get  at 
the  food.  "  They  do  let  me  have  all  this  stuff,  for 
the  trouble  of  fetchin'  it.  Look  here,"  she  ladled 
out  half  a  loaf  and  some  sodden  meat.  "  Their  cook 
wasties  no  end,  but  it  edn't  my  business,  and  the 
pigs  they'm  fattenin'  a  sight." 

"  You  must  wish  there  were  more  red  houses 
about,"  said  Mrs.  Smart  idly.  She  was  thinking 
that  the  sties  were  as  well  kept  as  in  her  mother's 
time. 

"  Another've  gone  up  since  you  been  here,  and 
Ah,"  she  fixed  her  little  twinkling  eyes  on  the 
shrewd  face  of  the  other  woman.  "  Ah've  had 
some  talk  wi'  their  cook." 

Mrs.  Smart  was  interested.    "  Yes  ?  " 

"  Ah  rackon  it  do  be  going  to  cost  me  five  shil- 
lin'." 

"Ah!" 

"  But  five  shillin'  'edn't  much,  for  all  as  they 
wasties  in  a  big  house.  Ah'm  going  to  buy  a  two- 
three  more  HT  pigs,  Ah  do  think,  come  Michaelmas. 


1 88  TREASURE   TROVE 

There's  that  strip  of  wood,  as  your  mother  bought 
the  summer  afore  her  died,  'tes  full  of  oak  trees, 
and  they  pigs  belong  to  get  a  heap  of  acorn  from't, 
not  to  speak  of  all  this  kitchen  stuff." 

The  tin  tub  being  now  empty,  Tamsin  started 
back  with  it;  and  as  they  went,  she  drew  her  com- 
panion's attention  to  the  various  animals,  to  the 
hens,  eight  to  every  hundred-foot  run,  the  big  white 
Aylesbury  ducks,  the  geese,  and  the  pigeons.  The 
hay  from  the  big  meadow  had  just  been  carted  home, 
a  fine  stack  of  fodder,  and  Tamsin  was  making  ar- 
rangements for  some  twenty  of  the  chicken  runs  to 
be  carried  over  to  the  shorn  field. 

"  They  do  fat  the  land,  they  hins,"  she  said  wisely. 
"  But  you  don't  want  to  put  too  many  on't.  T' 
longer  Ah  live,  't  more  sure  Ah  be,  that  hins  is  just 
one  of  the  rotation  o'  crops,  but  farmers  won't  see 
'em  so." 

The  lowing  of  kine  brought  the  promenade  to  an 
end,  and  the  two  women,  each  with  pail  and  milking 
stool,  for  Mrs.  Smart  had  insisted  upon  helping, 
went  towards  the  byre.  It  was  evident  that  Tamsin 
was  doing  as  well  if  not  better  than  her  predecessor. 
A  provision  shop  in  the  Edgeware  Road,  which  had 
been  wont  to  buy  all  that  Mrs.  Lovell  could  sup- 
ply, had  contracted  with  her  for  her  produce,  and 
once  a  week  she  rose  in  the  small  hours  and  drove 
her  laden  market  cart  to  town,  returning  while  it 
was  yet  morning.  Dairy  produce,  vegetables,  herbs, 
poultry,  bacon,  nothing  came  amiss  to  them,  for 


TREASURE    TROVE  189 

they  were  in  a  large  way  of  business,  and  the  excel- 
lence of  what  she  brought  made  them  willing  cus- 
tomers. 

"  'Tes  more  convanient  to  sell  they  everything  at 
't  lowest  price  than  to  be  hawking  the  things  about 
the  plaace,  in  t'hope  of  makin'  a  li'l  more,"  Tamsin 
said  as  they  sat  at  supper. 

Mrs.  Smart  nodded.  The  board,  with  its  simple 
plenishing,  its  horn-handled  knives  and  homely 
delft,  was  reminding  her  of  some  old-fashioned 
rhymes  which  she  had  learnt  in  her  childhood  and 
long  forgotten. 

Close  live  Ope   the   door 

And  nothing  give,  Feed   the  poor — 

You'll  have  gold  And   you'll   be    cold 

When  you're  old.  When  you're  old. 

"  And  neist  summer,"  continued  Tamsin  placidly, 
"Ah'll  be  startin'  turkeys.  They  be  delicate  fowl, 
but  Ah'll  rear  they  or  knaw  the  reason  why." 

Mrs.  Smart  answered  out  of  her  abstraction.  "  It 
must  be  very  lonely  here!  "  Somehow  it  had  never 
seemed  to  her  that  her  mother  might  be  lonely, 
mothers  being  a  race  above  such  commonplaces  of 
human  feeling;  but  Tamsin,  in  her  setting  of  big 
farm  kitchen,  seemed  a  very  small,  forlorn  and 
aging  creature. 

"  Ah  dunno  as  Ah'm  much  of  a  one  for  coom- 
pany,"  the  Cornishwoman  said.  "  Your  mother  did 
say  Ah  was  to  have  a  day  every  month  for  to  go  and 


190  TREASURE   TROVE 

see  my  friends,  but  Ah  had'n  none  in  these  parts,  so 
Ah  bided  to  home." 

"  But  haven't  you  any  relations,  anybody  who 
would  like  to  come  and  live  here  with  you  ?  " 

"  My  father  do  keep  a  public  up  to  Port  Isaac," 
answered  the  other  slowly.  "  He  and  mother  is 
still  braave  and  well,  but  gettin'  along  in  years.  My 
sister  that  lives  wi'm  told  me  in  a  letter  that  Ah  did 
ought  to  come  home  and  see  they  all.  You  see 
they'm  married  mostly,  they  wouldn't  want  to  come 
here." 

"  And  you  couldn't  leave  the  farm  ?  " 

The  other  gave  her  a  keen  glance.  "  Not  this 
year  Ah  couldn't,  Ah  knaw  that." 

"  Someday,  then,  you  think  of  going  ?  " 

"  'Tes  like  this.  Ah  bin  away  twanty  year  er 
more."  She  paused,  thoughts  which  she  was  pow- 
erless to  put  into  words,  rilling  her  mind.  "  Oh,  sure 
'nuff,  Ah'd  like  to  go." 

"  But  how  will  you  manage  ?  " 

Tamsin  hemmed  and  hawed,  hesitating  to  speak, 
but  finally  Mrs.  Smart  learnt  that  the  little  woman 
was  buoyed  up  by  a  hope  that  concerned  herself. 
With  what  she  felt  to  be  great  daring,  she  asked 
if  she  might  not  some  time  during  the  following 
summer  leave  the  farm  in  Mrs.  Smart's  care  and 
take  a  holiday ;  and  she  suggested  humbly  that  Mas- 
ter Willy  might  like  the  fishing  and  Miss  Eva  be 
willing  to  come  over  "  for  a  bit  of  change  like." 

The  truth  was  that  Tamsin,  now  comparatively 


TREASURE   TROVE  191 

rich,  mistress  of  a  little  farm  and  with  a  goodly  sum 
— the  savings  of  those  twenty  years — to  her  credit 
in  the  bank,  wanted  to  return  in  triumph  to  those 
who  had  known  her  as  a  servant.  She  would  be 
great  among  her  own  people,  a  prophet  in  her  own 
country  and  in  her  father's  house;  where  she  had 
been  poor,  would  flaunt  herself  and  her  possessions ; 
it  would  be  the  apotheosis  of  a  starveling  life. 

"  If  'ee  won't,"  she  said  wistfully,  "  Ah  mustn' 
look  to  go,  but  Ah'd  like  it  fine.  And  after  all,  the 
bit  of  land's  your  own.  Ah  thought  maybe  'ee'd  like 
to  have  it  to  yourself  for  a  week  or  two ;  'sides,  'tisn't 
this  summer,  'ee  knaw,  but  neist,  when  things  is 
more  settled  like." 

And  Minty  Smart  found  herself  looking  favour- 
ably on  the  suggestion.  To  have  the  old  home  to 
herself  for  a  fortnight!  To  be  there  with  her  chil- 
dren, with  the  memories  of  her  mother  and  of  her 
dear  companionable  father!  She  realised  abruptly 
that  she  would  like  to  fall  in  with  Tamsin's  plans. 
As  to  the  work,  who  better  fitted  to  undertake  it 
than  herself — she  who  had  been  brought  up  on  the 
farm,  and  to  whom  the  lore  of  it,  bred  in  her  bones, 
seemed  to  have  come  by  nature? 

"  I  could  do  it,"  she  said  cautiously,  "  and  I 
shouldn't  mind  doing  it,  but  a  year's  a  long  time, 
and  many  things  may  happen  before  August  twelve- 
month." 

The  half  promise  was,  however,  more  than  the 
Cornishwoman  had  expected.  A  flame  of  gratitude 


192  TREASURE   TROVE 

lighted  up  her  poor  anxious  heart  and  shone  out 
in  words.  "  Do  'ee  knaw  there's  'scursions,"  she 
said  eagerly,  and  it  was  evident  that  during  the  long 
months  since  Mrs.  Lovell's  death  she  had  thought 
out  and  matured  her  plans,  "  and  Ah  could  go  and 
come  by  one  o'  they?  A  fortnight  they  gives  you, 
and  the  ticket  costes  under  twanty  shiilun.  And  if 
you  was  to  come,  Ah  couldn't  tell  'ee  how  thankful 
Ah'd  be.  'Twould  be  the  first  real  holiday  as  Ah've 
had  since  Ah  was  a  maiden  at  the  school." 

"  Then  we  must  see  if  it  can't  be  managed,"  Mrs. 
Smart  said  kindly.  She  was  not  given  to  making 
rash  promises,  but  she  really  thought  that  she  and 
the  children  might  transfer  themselves  to  the  farm 
for  a  fortnight  during  the  ensuing  summer.  She 
could  look  after  the  farm  and  sort  out  what  was 
to  go  to  that  shop  in  Edgeware  Road.  If  Eva 
did  not  object,  she  could  even  drive  it  there  herself. 

It  was  not  until  after  breakfast  on  the  following 
morning  that  she  was  free  to  attend  to  the  business 
which  had  brought  her  to  Ashwater.  When  she 
stood  inside  her  mother's  bedchamber,  surrounded 
by  the  dead  woman's  possessions,  she  felt  for  the 
moment  strangely  young  and  inexperienced.  It  was 
as  if  she,  still  a  child,  were  meddling  with  articles 
forbidden  to  childish  fingers,  as  if  she  had  no  right 
in  this  room,  and  might  at  any  moment  be  turned 
out  in  disgrace. 

On  the  dismantled  bed,  light  boxes  of  cardboard, 
brpwn  and  white,  had  been  piled,  and  on  the  floor 


TREASURE   TROVE  193 

were  other  heavier  cases.  The  sewing  machine 
stood  by  a  work-table  with  a  green  silk  well,  the 
ugly  competent  present  elbowing  the  dainty  but  futila 
past,  and  beyond  these  was  something  that  she  could 
not  remember  to  have  seen  before,  something  that 
must  have  been  hidden  among  the  lumber  of  an  attic 
— an  old  wooden  cradle  on  rockers,  with  a  carven 
head  and  cane  sides.  Mrs.  Smart  went  over  to  it. 
She  supposed  that  she  had  lain  in  it,  and  she  felt 
that  whatever  else  was  sold  or  given  away,  this 
must  be  preserved;  this  must  be  for — for  Eva's 
children.  Already  the  thought  of  them  was  in  her 
mind,  these  children  who  were  to  be  the  crown  of 
her  old  age,  the  reward  of  her  patient,  temperate, 
laborious  life. 

The  sight  of  the  cradle  had  given  her  back  the 
feeling  of  responsibility  with  which  she  had  under- 
taken her  task.  She  no  longer  felt  like  a  little  girl 
trespassing  on  forbidden  ground,  but  as  a  woman 
who  before  many  years  had  been  counted  might  be- 
hold her  grandchildren.  With  renewed  courage  she 
set  to  work  upon  the  accumulations  round  and  about 
her.  Eva  had  begged  her  to  retain  anything  that 
was  quaint  and  old,  and  Mrs.  Smart,  with  her  eye 
upon  that  nest  to  be,  put  aside  all  sorts  of  trifles 
which  might  be  useful.  Old-fashioned  chintzes  and 
furniture  and  knick-knacks  were  the  mode,  though 
why,  Mrs.  Smart  could  not  imagine,  unless  it  were 
that  seasoned  wood  was  of  better  value.  But  that 
did  not  account  for  the  useless  odds  and  ends  which 


i94  TREASURE   TROVE 

people  feigned  to  admire,  and  for  which  they  were 
willing  to  pay  extravagant  sums.  "  Lumbering  up 
their  houses  with  a  lot  of  old  rubbish  and  putting 
cracked  and  chipped  china  in  the  drawing-room," 
said  Mrs.  Smart.  "  Give  me  something  new  and 
fresh  and  pretty." 

But  Eva  followed  the  fashion,  and  for  her  sake 
many  of  Mrs.  Lovell's  belongings,  which  would 
otherwise  have  been  ruthlessly  condemned  to  the 
second-hand  shop,  were  kept.  Mrs.  Smart  packed 
them  carefully.  It  would  cost  a  good  deal  to  send 
them  by  goods  train  or  carrier  to  Eastham.  On  the 
whole,  the  cheapest  plan  would  be  to  hire  one  of 
Mr.  Brent's  farm  carts  and  send  them  jogging 
slowly  along  through  the  country  lanes  to  meet  her 
on  her  return. 

As  Tamsin  had  prophesied,  the  work  of  sorting 
and  packing  took  her  some  days.  There  were  papers 
to  be  gone  through  and  destroyed,  a  few  daguerro- 
types  of  stiff-looking  men  and  women,  in  fact,  all 
the  debris  of  a  lifetime.  Minty,  ignorant  of  her 
mother's  past,  consigned  to  the  rubbish-heap  a  photo- 
graph that  Mrs.  Lovell  had  cherished  a  little  guiltily 
during  the  thirty  odd  years  which  had  elapsed  since 
her  husband's  death,  the  photograph  of  the  man  she 
had  not  married.  But  to  Minty  it  was  an  unknown, 
unrecognisable  face — so  far  apart  can  women  and 
their  children  be. 

She  was  on  the  look-out,  however,  for  anything 
that  had  belonged  to  her  father,  things  that  he  had 


TREASURE    TROVE  195 

used,  his  mother-o'-pearl  sleeve-links,  a  pair  of  foils, 
some  books.  At  the  bottom  of  a  long  box  she 
found  some  tarnished  epaulettes  and  a  couple  of 
swords,  and  suddenly  an  old  memory  awoke.  Her 
father's  father  had  been  a  soldier.  She  had  for- 
gotten it,  but  the  sight  of  the  swords  brought  back 
her  mother's  words,  "  He  died  while  still  a  young 
man — perhaps  it  was  as  well."  The  soldier  had  not 
lived  to  see  his  only  child  a  felon,  toiling  under 
ward  among  other  felons,  and  "perhaps  it  was  as 
well." 

Mrs.  Smart  laid  the  swords  aside.  They  should 
be  hung  upon  the  marbled  wall  of  the  entrance 
passage  at  home,  and  in  the  course  of  time  they 
should  be  Willy's,  a  legacy  to  him  from  his  great- 
grandfather, from  the  man  with  the  clean  record. 
But  the  epaulettes  she  threw  away.  She  would  not 
hoard  "  a  lot  of  old  rubbish." 

On  the  whole,  in  spite  of  her  forebodings,  Mrs. 
Smart's  few  days  at  the  farm  passed  happily  enough. 
Steeped  in  a  tender  melancholy  that  seemed  to  ema- 
nate from  the  things  she  was  daily  handling,  she 
found  that  her  memories  had  lost  their  poignancy, 
that  her  grief  had  changed  into  loving  recollection. 
She  felt,  too,  as  if  being  at  the  farm  had  brought 
her  nearer  to  her  mother.  When  she  woke  in  the 
morning  it  seemed  to  be  in  answer  to  that  mother's 
call ;  and  when  she  lay  down  at  night,  it  was  almost 
in  the  hope  that  presently  a  step  would  halt  at  her 
door  and  the  familiar  face  look  in  to  bid  her 


196  TREASURE   TROVE 

night.  Moreover,  Minty  Smart  naturally  preferred 
farm  to  villa  life;  and  the  change  from  the  propri- 
eties of  Eastham,  to  the  work,  *  early  to  rise  and 
early  to  bed/  of  Ashwater,  was  refreshing. 

She  had  arranged  to  return  to  The  Laurels  a  day 
or  two  before  Eva  was  expected  home,  but  to  her 
surprise  she  found  the  girl  awaiting  her.  "  You 
didn't  stay  as  long  as  you  thought  you  would,"  she 
said. 

"  No-o,  come  and  have  your  tea,  mother.  I'll  tell 
you  about  it  presently." 

Mrs.  Smart  gave  up  her  hat  and  gloves  and  para- 
sol, and  preceded  her  daughter  into  the  dining-room. 
"  I've  a  cartload  of  things  coming  over,"  she  said 
pleasantly,  "  and  they  may  be  here  at  any  moment. 
You  will  like  what  I've  put  aside  for  you." 

But  the  carter  was  taking  his  time,  and  when  the 
tea  was  cleared  away  there  was  still  no  sign  of  him. 

"  Let  us  go  round  the  garden,  Mother,"  sug- 
gested the  girl.  "  Everything  will  have  grown  enor- 
mously." 

"Why  yes,"  said  Mrs.  Smart  briskly.  "The 
strawberries  ought  to  be  ripe  by  now ;  that  is,  if  the 
birds  have  left  us  any."  She  was  a  pleasant  mother, 
with  smooth,  cool  cheeks  and  a  most  cushiony  figure, 
just  the  kind  to  lean  against  when  tired,  or  to  kiss 
when  very  happy.  Eva  was  the  latter,  and  as  they 
strolled  down  the  long  path  and  round  by  the  fruit 
trees,  she  slipped  an  arm  about  Mrs.  Smart's  ample 
waist  and  snuggled  up  to  her. 


TREASURE   TROVE  197 

"  Mother,"  she  said  softly,  "  Mr.  Flowerdew  was 
at  Surbiton  yesterday." 

Her  mother  reflected.  "'Yesterday  "  had  been  a 
Wednesday.  "  A  half  holiday  ?  "  she  said. 

Eva  nodded.  "  He  took  us  up  the  river/'  she 
said,  "  the  Browns  and  I." 

"  It  was  a  lovely  day,"  assisted  Mrs.  Smart. 

"  We  had  tea  somewhere,  and  afterwards  we 
went  for  a  stroll,  and  " — the  girl,  blushing  and  con- 
fused, looked  more  than  ever  like  a  June  rose — 
"  and  he  asked  me  to  marry  him." 

"  Of  course,  dear." 

"  Oh  Mother,"  she  hid  her  blushing  face  on  the 
elder  woman's  shoulder,  "  did  you  suspect?  " 

"  Oh  my  dear,"  and  Minty  gathered  the  young 
figure  to  her,  kissing  the  thick  dark  hair,  "  I'm  not 
blind." 

Eva  pulled  herself  together.  "  But  I  was,"  she 
said  with  a  little  surprised  laugh  at  past  density. 
"  I  thought  it  was  all  friendship,  just  the  most 
heavenly  friendship  that  had  ever  been.  I  thought 

so  until  he  told  me,  until  he — he "  She  paused 

in  renewed  confusion,  and  Mrs.  Smart  knew  that 
even  as  the  Sleeping  Beauty  had  been  awakened  by 
a  kiss,  so  with  a  kiss  had  Archie  Flowerdew  opened 
the  eyes  of  her  young  daughter. 

"  I  know,"  she  said  tenderly,  "  I  have  been  young, 
and  I  loved  your  father." 

Eva  drew  a  deep  breath  and  looked  away  across 
the  brightness  of  the  summer  garden  into  the  greater 


198  TREASURE    TROVE 

brightness  of  the  sunset.  "  Oh  Mother,  how  won- 
derful it  all  is !  Seven  months  ago  and  we  had  never 
met,  and  now  he  is  so  much  to  me  that  I  want  to 
spend  all  the  rest  of  my  life  with  him." 

They  strolled  on  in  a  contented  silence,  leaving 
the  overgrown  rhubarb  plants,  the  gooseberry  bushes 
and  the  potato  patch  behind,  and  emerging  by  the 
well-kept  tennis-lawn.  On  the  other  side  of  the 
path  were  low-growing  rose-trees  alternating  with 
clumps  of  sweet  peas,  those  faintly  tinted  butterflies 
which  are  tethered  to  earth  by  a  green  thread,  and 
which  flutter  in  every  breeze  with  the  hope  of  free- 
dom. At  last  Eva  broke  the  silence.  "  You  re- 
member where  we  met  ?  " 

"  At  that  second  subscription  dance." 

"  Yes,  Bertie  Chippendale  brought  him  up  to  me, 
and  our  steps  suited  so  well  that  we  had — er — sev- 
eral dances  together.  I  remember  he  teased  me 
about  Bertie  until  I  was  quite  cross,  and  yet  I  felt 
all  the  time  that  he  knew  I  didn't  care  about  Bertie 
or  anybody  else."  She  drew  a  long  breath  of  remi- 
niscence. "  It  was  the  most  delightful  dance  I'd 
ever  been  to !  "  she  said  dreamily. 

"  Yes,  dearie,"  said  her  mother,  full  of  sympathy 
and  comprehension.  "  I  know,"  as  indeed  she 
did. 

"  And  then  the  skating,  and  the  first  time  he  came 
to  the  house.  Oh  Mother,  what  a  happy,  happy 
time  it  has  been !  " 


TREASURE   TROVE  199 

"  Yes,  dearie." 

"  And  now  I  am  happier  than  ever.  Looking 
back,  I  feel  as  if  all  the  jolly  times  had  been  leading 
up  to  this;  but  I  didn't  know  it  then,  I  just  took 
them  as  they  came." 

"  In  fact,  it  was  love  at  first  sight  with  you  both." 

"  Yes,"  murmured  the  girl  shyly. 

"  I  felt  that,  or  perhaps  I  should  have  interfered." 

"  Interfered  ?  "  There  was  a  world  of  dismay  in 
the  soft  exclamation. 

"  Unmarried  women  haven't  either  happiness  or 
trouble,  but  married  have  both  the  one  and  the 
other,"  affirmed  Mrs.  Smart.  "  Mothers  want  their 
girls  to  marry  perfect  men  and  escape  the  trouble; 
but  men  aren't  perfect,  each  of  them  has  his  different 
little  ways,  and  the  girls  will  marry,  must,  I  sup- 
pose." 

"  But  if  the  ways  of  one  particular  man  suit  one 
particular  girl,  the  two  ought  to  be  happy." 

"  How  can  they  suit  if  *  ways '  is  only  another 
word  for  faults  ?  " 

Eva  looked  grave  and  more  than  a  little  unhappy. 
"Archie  told  me  he  was  irritable." 

Her  mother  nodded. 

"  But,"  anxiously,  "  I  am  good-tempered." 

:'  Yes,"  said  Mrs.  Smart,  "  of  course  that  will 
help,  but  he  has  other  faults." 

Young  love  found  it  difficult  to  believe.  "Oh 
Mother,  not  really?" 


200  TREASURE   TROVE 

"  Yes,  dearie,  he  is  inclined  to  be  selfish  and  self- 
indulgent,  and  because  you  love  him  you  will  want 
to  spoil  him.  A  woman's  love  mostly  hinders  a 
man.  She's  a  cushion  when  she  should  be  an  en- 
couragement." 

"  Mother,  aren't  you  pleased  about  it ;  don't  you 
like  him  ?  "  She  laid  troubled  emphasis  upon  the 
"  like,"  for  this  was  not  altogether  how  she  had 
expected  Mrs.  Smart  to  receive  the  news  of  her  en- 
gagement. 

"  I  am  pleased  to  have  you  marry,  very  pleased ; 
and  I'm  glad  you're  going  to  marry  the  man  you 
fancy;  and  I  shall  like  him  according  to  how  he 
treats  you." 

Eva  pleaded.  "  Mother,  you  are  too  bad,"  she 
said. 

"Time  tryeth  troth,"  quoted  Mrs.  Smart.  "I 
found  that  written  inside  my  mother's  wedding 
ring.  But  anyway,  Eva,  I  really  believe  Mr.  Flow- 
erdew  is  a  nice  young  man  with  excellent  qualities." 

Eva  brightened  at  once.    "  Tell  me  ?  "  she  coaxed. 

"  Well,  dearie,  I  think  he'll  love  you  all  the  time, 
and  of  course  he's  very  clever  and  good-looking  and 
generous.  Perhaps  his  faults  are  only  on  the  sur- 
face, and  perhaps,  too,  you  may  help  him  to  mend 
them." 

"  I  ?  "  said  humility.     "  Oh  Mother !  " 

"  If  you  aren't  too  much  of  a  cushion."  She 
sighed,  thinking  of  the  past.  Her  mother  had  been 
neither  a  cushion  nor  an  encouragement  to  her  hus- 


TREASURE    TROVE  201 

band,  but  then  she  had  not  loved  him.  She  had 
stood  aside  and  let  him  go  his  own  way.  Would 
Eva's  lot  be  a  happier  one?  "Most  people,"  said 
Mrs.  Smart,  "  love  and  give,  only  very  few  know 
how  to  love  and  deny." 


CHAPTER   XII 

MR.  BRENT'S  carter  being  one  of  those  who  liked  to 
take  his  ease  at  his  inn,  the  farm-waggon  with  its 
heterogeneous  load  of  boxes  and  furniture  did  not 
arrive  until  somewhat  late  that  evening.  As  a  con- 
sequence, Eva  and  her  mother  spent  most  of  the 
following  day  unpacking,  apportioning,  finding 
places  for  their  new  possessions.  The  girl  was 
frankly  delighted  with  her  share  of  the  spoil. 

"  It  would  seem  as  if  you  had  had  a  pre-vision  of 
what  was  going  to  happen,"  she  said  joyfully,  as 
she  spread  out  an  old  and,  it  must  be  confessed, 
somewhat  moth-eaten  piece  of  brocade,  "  think  of 
this  now." 

Mrs.  Smart  looked  at  it  distastefully.  In  her 
own  mind  she  labelled  it  rubbish.  "  It's  rather 
moth-y,"  she  said. 

"  Oh,  I'll  bake  it ;  but,  Mother,  it's  so  dim-look- 
ing and  rich,  it  will  make  a  lovely  piano  back  or  I 
could  throw  it  over  the  end  of  a  sofa !  And  Granny's 
work-table,"  she  pulled  out  the  drawer  of  many 
compartments,  "  think  of  all  the  pretty  silks  and 
elegancies  that  once  fitted  with  these  divisions." 

Mrs.  Smart  was  examining  the  sewing  machine. 
"  How  often  I  have  seen  mother  with  her  foot  on 
the  treadle,  as  she  guided  some  piece  of  stuff,  which 
meant  clothes  for  me,  under  the  needle,"  she  said. 

202 


TREASURE    TROVE  203 

"  I  never  saw  her  use  the  work-table  except  to  store 
cottons  in,  but  this  was  a  different  matter."  And 
her  thoughts  went  back  to  old  days  at  the  farm  when 
to  her  mother's  outdoor  work  was  added  the  shap- 
ing and  making  of  simple  garments.  Her  clothes 
had  been  very  plain,  so  plain  that  her  schoolfellows 
had  remarked  upon  them.  It  had  annoyed  her  at 
the  time  but  now  she  was  glad,  oh,  very  glad  that 
her  frocks  should  have  been  so  straight  and  have 
had  so  little  trimming.  "  In  the  long  run  Eva,"  she 
said  thoughtfully,  "  you  will  come  to  like  the  hon- 
est old  sewing  machine  better  than  that  pretty 
toy." 

The  boxes  had  been  piled  along  the  sides  of  a 
tiny  apartment  between  the  front  bedchambers,  an 
apartment  which  had  once  been  Mr.  Smart's  dress- 
ing-room. But  the  heavier  pieces  of  furniture,  a 
writing-table,  an  armchair,  the  cradle,  and  a  long 
cheval  glass,  incongruous  remnants  of  a  time,  dim 
even  to  Minty  and  unknown  to  Minty's  children, 
had  been  piled  against  and  upon  one  another  in  the 
hall.  "  They  can't  stay  here,"  said  Mrs.  Smart  as 
she  came  downstairs. 

"  I'll  have  the  long  glass  in  my  bedroom,"  said 
Eva  eagerly. 

"  And  of  course,  mother's  armchair  must  go  into 
mine,  and  we  must  find  room  for  that  writing-table 
in  the  drawing-room." 

Eva  studied  the  old-fashioned  cradle.  "  And 
what  will  you  do  with  this?  " 


204  TREASURE    TROVE 

"  In  the  meantime,"  said  Mrs.  Smart,  finishing 
a  sentence  which  she  had  not  uttered,  "  it  can  be 
left  in  the  loft.  Willy  shall  put  it  there  when  he 
comes  back,"  and  with  a  tired  step,  for  the  day 
had  been  long  and  she  had  worked  hard,  she  walked 
forward  into  the  dining-room. 

Eva  too  had  been  busy,  but  the  excitement  of  her 
engagement  and  new  possessions,  of  those  first 
straws  for  the  nest,  had  set  a  dancing  spirit  in  her 
feet  and  she  went  lightly  up  to  the  rounded  window 
and  looked  out.  Presently,  when  they  had  eaten 
their  tea-supper  and  the  pleasant  dimpsey  light  was 
losing  itself  in  the  purples  of  evening,  her  lover 
would  come  in  at  the  gate,  she  would  hear  its  clash 
as  it  swung  to  behind  him  and  she  would  run  out 
to  greet  and  bring  him  in.  Since  yesterday  she  had 
acquired  a  multitude  of  new  sweet  rights,  and  per- 
haps the  sweetest  was  this  simplifying  of  their  re- 
lations. Hitherto  others  had  ministered  to  him, 
had  sought  him,  had  claimed  his  attention ;  now,  by 
this  ring  upon  her  finger,  he  was  hers. 

"  What  are  Archie's  plans  for  the  future  ?  "  asked 
Mrs.  Smart  from  her  armchair,  and  the  girl  turned 
quickly  about.  Love's  young  dream  takes  little 
heed  of  income  or  the  lack  of  it. 

"  That  is  the  difficulty,"  she  said  with  cheerful- 
ness. "  The  poor  boy  has  no  prospects  and  he  only 
gets  a  hundred  and  fifty  a  year;  however,  we  can 
wait." 

"  But  if  he  has  no  prospects " 


TREASURE    TROVE  205 

"  If  he  had  he  would  have  spoken  to  me  before." 

"  Then  now " 

"  Oh  no,  it  was  only  that  he  could  not  wait  any 
longer." 

Mrs.  Smart  had  married  on  a  small  income,  and 
had  been  happy.  She  looked  at  Eva,  Eva  who  was 
usually  so  practical,  so  full  of  commonsense.  "  But 
no  prospects !  "  she  said.  Narrow  means  at  the 
beginning  would  be  good  discipline,  but  narrow 
means  for  a  lifetime !  " 

"  Oh  well,"  returned  her  daughter,  "  of  course 
he  hopes  some  day  to  have  a  school  of  his  own." 

"  Then  he  did  speak  of  the  future  ?  " 

"  He  said  he  was  on  the  look-out  for  a  school." 

"But  if  he  has  no  private  means?" 

"Well,  there's  an  idea  that  his  brother-in-law 
might  find  the  money.  They  are  very  good  friends 
and  if  Archie  discovered  a  suitable  school  he  would 
get  Mr.  Johnson  to  invest  money  in  it,  to  buy  it  in 
fact  and  then  he  would  pay  interest." 

"  He  would  begin  his  married  life  in  debt  ?  " 

"  Oh  Mother  dear,  it's  all  a  matter  of  business. 
Mr.  Johnson  invests  in  all  sorts  of  things,  so 
why  not  in  this?  I  am  sure  it  would  pay  him 
well." 

"  But  what  do  you  think  of  the  idea  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know  anything  about  business,  in  fact 
I  suggested  starting  here  in  a  small  way  and  build- 
ing up  a  connection.  The  Johnsons  would  send  their 
boys  and  perhaps  the  Murrows  and  the  Chippen- 


206  TREASURE    TROVE 

dales  and  that  would  be  a  beginning.  There  isn't 
a  good  school  here." 

"What  did  he  say?" 

"  He  wouldn't  hear  of  it,  and  I  daresay  he  13 
right.  He  must  know  more  about  the  matter  than 
I  can." 

"  Well,  I'm  in  favour  of  your  beginning  at  the 
beginning.  It's  better  to  live  small  and  have  cash 
in  your  pocket  than  to  spend  all  you  make  in  paying 
off  a  debt." 

"  It  sounds  as  if  it  were,"  said  Eva.  "  But  Archie 
says  if  you  begin  small  you  remain  small;  and  he 
doesn't  want  to  be  a  poor  man  all  his  life." 

"  Ah,"  said  the  mother,  "  but  we  can't  fly  over 
our  mountains,  we  have  to  climb  them.  It  may,  as 
you  say,  be  a  matter  of  business,  but  I'm  not  satis- 
fied. I  wish  he'd  been  content  to  begin  small,  I  do 
indeed." 

"  Well,  so  do  I,  but  in  this  matter  the  decision 
must  rest  with  him,"  and  Eva  turned  resolutely  back 
to  the  window.  She  had  faith  in  her  lover's  judg- 
ment, more  faith  than  in  her  own  commonsense; 
and  yet  she  doubted,  with  the  woman's  immemorial 
doubt  of  masculine  wisdom,  and  doubting  was 
troubled. 

The  last  red  streaks  of  day  were  fading  out  of  the 
sky  and  the  soft  June  night  stealing  softly  over  east 
to  west,  was  hanging  stars  like  stalactites  from  the 
deep  over-arching  blueness.  Eva  stood  looking, 
listening,  dreaming,  until  the  drowsy  chirp  of  the 


TREASURE    TROVE  207 

last  bird  was  hushed,  until  an  eager  insistent  push 
upon  the  gate,  let  through  to  her  the  man  for  whom 
she  was  waiting. 

"  Oh  Mother,"  she  cried  as  she  ran  by  on  her  way 
to  the  door,  "  it  is  all  right,  it  will  be  all  right,  it 
must  be  all  right  because,"  there  was  almost  a  sob 
in  the  soft  thrilling  voice,  "  I  love  him  so." 

"  Yes,"  said  Mrs.  Smart  to  herself,  "  and  that  is 
why  it  may  be  all  right — in  time." 

When  on  just  such  another  evening  Willy  wheeled 
his  bicycle  into  the  garden  and  was  presently  ap- 
prised of  these  events,  he  expressed  himself  as  mod- 
erately pleased.  Upon  further  acquaintance  Flower- 
dew  had  proved  less  supercilious  and  more  inter- 
esting. He  had  realised  that  it  might  be  as  well 
to  propitiate  the  younger  man,  and  when  he  unbent 
he  could  be  a  charming  companion.  Willy  had  been 
fascinated  by  his  traveller's  tales.  On  leaving  the 
'Varsity  Flowerdew  had  accepted  the  post  of  tutor 
to  Lord  Albert  Gaveston,  and  they  had  wandered 
far  afield.  Their  escapes  had  not  been  hair-breadth 
nor  their  adventures  very  strange,  but  Flowerdew 
knew  how  to  make  the  best  of  his  material  and 
Willy,  metaphorically,  had  sat  at  his  feet.  He  an- 
nounced himself  as  pleased  at  the  engagement,  but 
confided  to  his  mother  that  Colonel  Smart  had 
thought  "  Archie  liquored  a  bit  freely." 

"  But  I  can't  see  it.  Some  men,  and  Flowerdew's 
one  of  them,  can  stand  a  lot.  It  isn't  how  much 
you  drink,  but  what  effect  it  has  upon  you." 


2o8  TREASURE   TROVE 

"Nonsense,"  said  Mrs.  Smart.  She  held  vigor- 
ous opinions  upon  the  subject  and  did  not  fear  to 
express  them.  "  It's  a  bad  thing  to  get  into  the  way 
of  drinking  spirits,  whatever  the  effect  it  has.  But," 
her  ineradicable  optimism  coming  into  play,  "  young 
men  often  form  habits  of  which  when  they  are  mar- 
ried they  have  to  break  themselves." 

"  Then  you  agree  with  Uncle  William  ?  " 

"  Oh  yes,"  said  the  mother  tranquilly,  "  but  Eva 
can  be  trusted  to  deal  with  the  matter.  She  has 
plenty  of  commonsense.  The  main  point  about  the 
engagement  is  that  they  are  honestly  in  love  with 
each  other.  Things  come  right  when  there's  plenty 
of  love,  when  there's  enough  love."  And  she  really 
believed  that  that  was  all  that  was  necessary. 

"  You  romantic  old  dear !  "  He  rubbed  his  curly 
head  against  her  shoulder  in  an  affectionate  manner, 
for  he  was  still  in  some  ways  a  boy.  Girls  were 
pretty  and  pleasant  creatures,  but  so  far  all  his 
kisses  had  been  for  his  mother,  and  they  were  warm 
and  tender  kisses.  Mrs.  Smart  felt  that  when  he 
went  a-wooing  the  woman  must  be  hard  and  strong 
who  would  be  able  to  resist  him.  But  Willy,  for 
all  his  four  and  twenty  years,  had  many  things  to 
do  before  he  went  a-wooing,  and  some  of  them  he 
was  already  eager  to  set  about,  one  in  particular. 

"  Now  give  over  being  proud  that  you've  man- 
aged to  get  a  husband  for  your  daughter,"  said 
he  teasingly,  "  and  think  for  a  moment  of  poor 
me." 


TREASURE    TROVE  209 

Mrs.  Smart  ignored  the  end  of  his  remark. 
"  Willy,  there  were  lots  of  them,"  she  cried  with  a 
clutch  at  the  ripple  of  hair  which  had  been  laid  so 
confidingly  against  her  shoulder,  that  broad  ripple 
of  which  Colonel  Smart  would  have  shorn  him. 

"  The  proof  of  the  pudding  is  in  the  eating,"  said 
he,  and  leant  back  out  of  her  reach.  "  Our  Eva 
is  twenty-one  you  know,"  and  he  shook  his  head, 
"  a  really  attractive  girl  would  have  been  married 
at  eighteen,  but  she,  poor  child " 

"  Ridiculous  nonsense !  " 

"  But  as  I  was  saying,  give  over  being  so  un- 
necessarily cock-a-hoop  and,"  he  slapped  a  broad 
chest  encouragingly,  "  and  think  of  me." 

His  mother  was  contemptuous.     "You?" 

"  .Well,  my  affairs.  I  mean  it,  Mother.  Things 
have  come  to  a  head  in  the  city  and  I  must  know 
where  I  stand." 

"Yes   dearie." 

He  leant  forward  suddenly  serious.  "  Addison 
Senior  has  finally  agreed  to  launch  his  boy,  and  Ad- 
dison Junior  wants  to  know  definitely  whether  I 
will  come  in  with  him.  If  I  don't,  there's  Thomp- 
son, who  would  give  his  eyes  for  the  chance." 

"  Explain,  dearie." 

"  Well,  to  be  made  a  member  of  the  Stock  Ex- 
change costs  several  hundred  pounds  and  then  a 
fellow  ought  to  have  a  bit  of  capital  at  the  back  of 
him.  Addison  Senior  is  backing  his  boy  to  the  tune 
of  a  couple  of  thousand.  Now  I  know  you've  got 


210 

a  stocking  mother,  but  I  don't  suppose  you  could 
manage  so  much  as  that  for  me  ?  " 

"  It  would  be  an  equal  partnership  if  I  could  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  When  must  you  give  them  an  answer?  " 

"  I've  a  week  in  which  to  think  it  over." 

"  And  you  believe  this  partnership  would  be 
likely  to  do  all  right?" 

"I  think  so." 

"  Humph !  Well,  I  might  be  able  to  lay  my 
hands  on  the  money."  The  five  thousand  pounds 
were  still  lying  to  her  credit  in  the  bank.  "  But  I 
won't  do  anything  in  a  hurry.  Your  Uncle  William 
had  better  see  Mr.  Addison  and  talk  things  over 
with  him.  I'll  write  to-night.  Now  tell  me  details, 
where  your  offices  will  be  and  how  you  will  spend 
your  day,  tell  me  all  about  everything."  She  had 
a  wish  to  understand  this  mysterious  thing  which 
men  called  business,  to  push  aside  the  veil  which 
they  hung  between  it  and  their  womenkind. 

Willy,  grateful  and  gay-hearted,  did  his  best,  but 
operations,  speculations,  finance,  were  nothing  to 
him  and  presently  he  came  back  to  his  own  hopes 
and  wishes,  revealing  in  his  happiness  more  of  them 
than  he  would  have  done  if  he  had  considered.  "  I 
want  to  make  money,"  he  said  eagerly. 

"  Of  course,"  assented  the  mother. 

Secret  thoughts  and  dreams  were  looking  out  of 
the  flint-grey  eyes.  "  Ah,  but  not  in  order  to  be- 
come a  respectable  householder  in  the  suburbs,"  he 


TREASURE    TROVE  211 

said,  shattering  with  his  easy  words  the  hope  his 
mother  had  cherished  from  his  babyhood.  "  I  want 
money  so  that  I  can  get  away  from  it  all,  the  days 
in  the  city,  the  nights  down  here."  He  moved  rest- 
lessly and  his  eyes  had  a  distant  look.  "  Sometimes 
mater  I've  felt  as  if  the  hours  I  was  living  through 
were  each  of  them  valuable  things,  things  that  I 
was  losing  before  I  could  make  use  of  them." 

Mrs.  Smart  put  out  a  trembling  hand  and  laid  it 
on  his  knee.  She  was  not  a  demonstrative  woman, 
but  it  had  suddenly  become  necessary  for  her  to 
know  that  he  was  still  there,  still  with  her  in  the 
flesh.  The  hard  bony  knee  beneath  the  stout 
trousering  reassured  her  partially,  but  she  began  to 
wonder  whether  the  business  life  led  by  the  men 
about  was  the  right  one  for  her  son,  whether  the 
path  on  which  she  had  persuaded  him  to  set  his  feet 
would  lead  to  happiness  and  success.  She  had  looked 
forward  to  seeing  him  a  man  as  much  like  his  fel- 
lows as  one  seed  is  like  the  others  in  a  pod.  He 
was  to  have  been  a  decent  and  conventional  member 
of  suburban  society,  smart,  shrewd,  up-to-date,  the 
warden  or  sidesman  of  his  church,  married  to  one 
of  the  pretty  girls  with  whom  he  danced  and  played 
tennis,  and  the  father  of  healthy  boys  and  girls.  A 
happy  life,  a  useful  life,  a  good  life!  Could  it  be 
that  her  hopes  for  him  were  never  to  be  realised, 
that  his  ambitions  were  not  her  ambitions,  that 
something  beyond  her,  something  which  she  could 
not  understand,  was  calling  him  away.  "  Oh 


212  TREASURE  TROVE 

Willy,"  she  said.  "  Oh  Willy,  my  dear,  dear  boy, 
what  is  it  that  you  want  ?  " 

He  came  back  to  his  old  place,  and  with  his  head 
upon  her  shoulder  began  to  tell  her  of  his  dreams 
and  longings.  "  How  can  I  sit  on  a  stool,  earning 
my  pound  or  two  a  week,  when  I  might  be  going 
about,  seeing  things  ?  " 

"  You've  got  to  keep  yourself." 

"  Oh,  yes,  but  I'd  sooner  be  a  rolling  stone  than 
sit  here  gathering  moss,  even  if  the  moss  were 
golden.  The  fellows  about  are  all  so  certain  that 
the  moss  business  is  the  right  one,  but  I  don't  know." 
He  sighed.  "  Well,  I  suppose  they  were  cut  out  for 
it  and  I  wasn't." 

"  A  rolling  stone ! "  Mrs.  Smart  echoed  him 
blankly.  "  And  I  who  thought  you  liked  Eastham 
and  were  so  keen  on  its  development." 

"  Oh,  mater  dear,  don't  you  know  that  I'm  keen 
on  everything — for  the  time  being."  He  laughed 
at  what  he  thought  his  own  inconsistency,  but  his 
mother  could  not  smile.  She  had  accepted  his  light 
enthusiasms  and  shut  her  eyes  to  that  underlying 
seriousness  of  which,  though  she  would  have  denied 
it,  she  had  always  known.  Now  it  had  pushed  its 
way  to  the  surface  and  she  must  admit  that  this 
boy  of  hers  was  no  tame  and  domesticated  creature, 
such  as  the  men  about,  but  one  of  the  "  legion  that 
never  was  listed."  And  she  regretted  it,  she  who 
for  the  first  time  in  her  tranquil  life  was  suffering 
from  the  heart-ache  of  all  women  who  have  given 
sons  to  that  strange  regiment. 


TREASURE   TROVE  213 

"  Perhaps,"  she  faltered,  "  perhaps  you  had  better 
not  become  a  stockbroker." 

But  Willy  did  not  understand  his  own  insistent 
desires.  "  Oh,  yes,"  he  said  quickly,  "  I  want  to, 
you  see  I  can  make  money  that  way,  make  it 
quickly."  He  did  not  know  that  a  man  does  not 
choose  his  career,  merely  for  the  pelf  that  it  can 
bring,  but  must  have  a  pride  in  his  work,  seeing 
that  it  is  the  labour  of  his  little  day. 

Mrs.  Smart's  voice  sounded  curiously  dead.  Her 
two  children  had  come  to  her  with  their  young  de- 
cisions and  she  must  not  oppose  either  the  girl  or 
the  boy.  Their  lives  were  their  own,  and  she  might 
only  help,  she  must  not  interfere.  "  Very  well," 
she  said  quietly,  "  then  I  will  go  and  write  to  your 
uncle."  But  her  heart  was  sad.  She  would  write 
of  the  thousands  lying  idle  at  the  bank,  the  thou- 
sands which  had  once  glittered  and  scintillated  in 
a  glorious  heap  of  gems,  she  would  authorise  her 
brother-in-law  to  make  what  arrangements  were 
necessary,  but  her  mind  misgave  her.  She  would 
be  tying  Willy  down,  making  him  responsible,  put- 
ting him  in  bonds,  he  who  should — at  last  she  ac- 
knowledged it — he  who  should  have  been  a  wan- 
derer over  the  face  of  the  earth. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

WHEN  Archibald  Flowerdew  found  the  school  not 
too  far  from  London,  of  which  he  believed  if  it 
were  his,  he  could  make  a  success,  he  went  to  his 
brother-in-law  in  perfect  confidence  that  he  was 
offering  that  man  of  business  a  good  investment. 
Matt  Johnson  was  an  actuary,  a  dogged,  plain- 
spoken  person,  who  by  dint  of  hard  endeavour  had 
obtained  both  a  good  position  and  the  woman  upon 
whom  he  had  set  his  affections ;  but  as  he  informed 
his  indignant  visitor  it  was  not  by  entertaining  wild- 
cat schemes  that  he  had  reached  his  present  eleva- 
tion. 

"  Where  is  your  security  ?  "  he  asked.  He  was 
a  short  broad  man  with  those  vivid  blue  eyes  which 
in  conjunction  with  black  hair  are  so  often  to  be 
seen  in  the  pottery  district  of  England. 

"  Surely  my  reputation  as  a  teacher  is  security 
enough,"  returned  Flowerdew,  and  was  genuinely 
surprised  to  hear  that  it  was  not. 

"If  you  died "  began  the  man  of  business. 

"  The  school  could  be  sold  for  what  I  gave,  or 
probably,  as  I  hope  to  work  up  the  connection,  for 
more." 

"  You  hope  to,  yes,  but  you  don't  know  that  you 
will."  He  shook  his  head  and  smiled.  "  You  have 
only  uncertainty  to  offer  me." 

214 


TREASURE    TROVE  215 

Flowerdew  was  taken  aback.  "  But  surely,"  he 
said,  "  I  could  raise  the  money  by  means  of  insur- 
ance ?  " 

"  Now  you  are  talking,  well?  " 

"  I  would  insure  my  life  for  two  thousand  pounds 
and  hand  over  the  policy  to  you." 

"  If  you  fell  into  bad  health  who  would  pay  the 
premiums?  " 

The  other  was  non-plussed.  "  Oh  but,"  said  he, 
"  why  should  you  imagine  death,  ill-health  and 
failure?" 

"  We  take  them  into  account.  You  see  the  mat- 
ter from  your  side  and  I  from  mine." 

"  Then  it  would  be  of  no  use  my  insuring  my 
life?" 

"  Well,  you  would  have  to  insure  not  only  for 
two  thousand  pounds  payable  so  many  years  hence, 
but  for  as  much  more  as  would  pay  the  premiums. 
It  is  for  you  to  consider  whether  you  can  stand  the 
racket." 

Flowerdew  did  not  think  he  could.  He  had  given 
anxious  consideration  to  the  prospects  of  the  school 
and  though  he  expected  they  would  improve  under 
his  care,  he  was  aware  that  for  one  cause  or  an- 
other, the  number  of  pupils  had  during  the  past 
few  years,  slightly  diminished.  He  would  speedily 
increase  the  connection,  but  in  order  to  advertise 
he  must  have  a  little  money  in  hand,  and  a  heavy 
insurance  would  hamper  him. 

"  I'll  think  it  over,"  he  said  at  last. 


216  TREASURE   TROVE 

Really  this  was  a  strange  world  into  which  he 
had  stumbled,  this  world  of  business  men.  Hitherto 
hopes,  good  intentions,  character,  reputation,  had 
seemed  to  him  valuable  assets,  but  here  they  ap- 
peared to  be  of  no  more  account  than  the  figments 
of  a  dream.  It  was  a  chapfallen  young  school- 
master who  found  his  way  out  of  the  actuary's 
office. 

But  his  confidence  in  himself  was  too  strong  for 
him  to  be  easily  discouraged;  and  that  evening 
while  recounting  to  Eva  the  check  which  he  had  re- 
ceived, he  made  it  plain  that  he  hoped  soon  to  find 
a  way  out  of  the  difficulty. 

"  There  must  be  one,"  he  said  tranquilly,  "  and 
though  I  feel  rather  as  I  did  when  I  was  in  the 
Maze  at  Hampton  Court,  I  shall  light  on  it  before 
long." 

The  days  passed,  however,  without  bringing  him 
the  cue  he  sought  and  in  the  end  Eva  went  to  her 
mother.  Two  thousand  pounds  was  the  exact  sum 
that  Mrs.  Smart  intended  to  settle  upon  her,  and 
she  would  be  willing  to  hand  this  over  to  him  for 
the  purchase  of  the  school.  She  hoped  to  find  her 
mother  as  willing,  but  in  her  turn,  and  to  her  sur- 
prise, was  met  with  difficulties. 

"  But  Mother  dear,  it  is  such  an  opportunity.  An 
old-established  school  in  a  good  neighbourhood, 
with  splendid  playing  fields  and  all  the  latest  im- 
provements in  the  class  rooms,  why  we  shall  never 
have  such  a  chance  again." 


TREASURE    TROVE  217 

"  Yes  dearie,  but  if  all  your  money  is  sunk  in  it 
you  will  have  nothing  to  fall  back  upon." 

"  But  I  shan't  want  anything  beyond  what  the 
school  brings  us  in.  Also  Archie  would  regard  it 
as  a  loan  and  hand  me  over  four  per  cent  interest 
on  it  and  that  of  course  I  should  save.  After  all, 
Mother,  any  money  that  you  give  me  will  be  as 
much  his  as  mine." 

"  Not  his  to  play  with." 

"  Still  if  we  don't  help  the  poor  boy  I  don't  see 
how  he  and  I  can  ever  be  married." 

The  argument  carried  weight.  As  Eva  had  made 
her  choice  Mrs.  Smart,  who  did  not  approve  of  long 
engagements,  would  like  to  see  her  married  and 
settled ;  what  she  did  not  like  was  sinking  her  good 
money  in  what  seemed  a  dubious  speculation. 
Archie  might  be  a  clever  teacher,  but  how  did  she 
know  that  he  had  the  requisite  gifts  to  make  him 
successful  as  head  master  and  owner  of  a  schpol? 
She  had  not  Eva's  faith,  she  saw  too  clearly  the 
faults  of  disposition  which  might  come  between  the 
man  and  success,  and  yet  in  the  end  she  allowed 
herself  to  be  persuaded  into  doing  what  she  felt 
was  ill-advised.  Eva's  future,  however,  was  consid- 
ered. Archie  must  covenant  to  pay  interest  until 
he  could  return  the  borrowed  capital,  which  when 
returned  was  to  be  put  into  settlement  for  her  and 
her  children ;  and  this  he  was  willing  even  eager  to 
do.  His  pride  had  suffered  from  his  brother-in- 
law's  remarks  and  it  suffered  more  when  Matt 


218  TREASURE    TROVE 

Johnson,  one  who  '  owed  no  man  anything '  heard 
of  this  arrangement. 

His  eyebrows  went  up  and  he  whistled.  "  Damn 
funny  biz,"  he  said. 

"  Can't  see  it,"  was  the  languid  response. 

"You  wouldn't." 

"  That  hardly  sounds  complimentary." 

"  Oh,  to  every  man  his  own  set  of  scruples." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  Well  I'd  be  shot  before  I  took  a  woman's  little 
bit  of  money  to  give  me  a  start." 

The  other  had  reddened  angrily.  "  It  is  as  much 
for  her  sake  as  mine,"  he  retorted,  but  Matt  said 
no  more.  To  him  nothing  that  Archie  could  have 
urged  would  have  excused  his  action  in  the  matter, 
from  no  point  of  view  was  it  permissible.  But  as  he 
had  said,  "  to  every  man  his  own  set  of  scruples," 
and  to  do  him  justice,  Flowerdew  himself,  in  his 
blind  self-confidence,  was  quite  unable  to  see  that 
he  was  wronging  the  trust  of  the  woman  he  was 
about  to  marry. 

It  became  evident  as  soon  as  the  purchase  money 
had  been  found,  that  Archie  with  a  school  would  be 
Archie  very  much  in  need  of  a  wife.  The  engage- 
ment with  its  mingled  hopes  and  fears  had  already 
lasted  some  months.  It  was  therefore  decided  that 
the  wedding  would  take  place  during  the  Christ- 
mas holidays  and  the  young  couple  settle  into  Mor- 
ton House  just  before  the  commencement  of  the 
January  term. 


TREASURE    TROVE  219 

Neither  Eva  nor  her  mother  wished  for  other 
than  a  conventional  wedding,  and  as  long  as  his 
bride  was  robed  in  white  and  given  to  him  by  the 
church,  Mr.  Flowerdew  preserved  an  open  mind. 
It  was  the  women's  affair,  let  them  see  to  it. 

The  Laurels  therefore  was  swept  and  garnished, 
silver-printed  invitations  were  issued,  and  all  East- 
ham,  except  the  gin-distiller's  daughter,  who  had 
not  heard  that  there  was  going  to  be  a  wedding, 
went  to  see  pretty  Eva  Smart  in  her  robe  of  purity 
and  with  her  blushing  veil-hidden  face  walk  up  the 
aisle  of  the  dim  church  and  come  down  radiant, 
smiling  and  unveiled,  as  Mrs.  Flowerdew;  and  that 
everything  was  done  according  to  custom  is  evi- 
denced by  the  half-column  that  appeared  a  few  days 
later  in  the  Eastham  Herald: — • 

"  There  was  a  large  company  of  guests  and  rela- 
tives at  St.  Mary's,  Eastham  Hill,  on  Wednesday, 
to  witness  the  wedding  of  Miss  Evangeline  Smart, 
daughter  of  the  late  Mr.  Richard  Smart  and  Mrs. 
Smart  of  The  Laurels,  Eastham,  and  grand-daugh- 
ter of  the  late  Sir  Jocelyn  Smart  of  Smarden  Priory, 
with  Mr.  Archibald  Flowerdew,  son  of  the  late  Mr. 
Thomas  Flowerdew  of  Queen's  Stanton.  The  serv- 
ice was  fully  choral  and  very  impressive,  the  offi- 
ciating clergy  being  the  Rev.  D.  S.  Smith  and  the 
Rev.  J.  J.  Jorrocks.  The  address  was  given  by  tfie 
Rev.  J.  J.  Jorrocks,  the  subject  of  his  discourse 
being  mutual  self-sacrifice  and  its  sanctification. 

"  The  bride  looked  very  charming  indeed,  in  an 


220  TREASURE   TROVE 

ivory  satin  Princess  dress,  embroidered  and 
trimmed  with  chiffon  and  silver  tissue.  She  wore  a 
wreath  of  orange-blossoms  under  a  tulle  veil  and 
carried  a  bouquet  of  lilies,  the  gift  of  the  bride- 
groom. The  bridesmaids  were  attired  in  rose  pink 
and  wore  silver  and  pink  enamel  pendants,  the  gift 
of  the  bridegroom. 

"  The  invited  guests  at  the  church  consisted  prin- 
cipally of  the  nearest  relatives  of  the  bride  and 
bridegroom.  The  presents  were  numerous  and  spe- 
cially choice." 

In  such  manner  was  Eva  wedded  to  the  man  to 
whom  she  had  given  love  and  that  pathetic  faith  of 
girlhood,  a  faith  so  often  founded  upon  quicksands 
that  must  eventually  engulf  it.  But  illusions  are  the 
sheath  of  the  bud,  they  protect  it  from  the  search- 
ing winds  of  reality  and  when  time  peels  it  off,  the 
flower  that  bourgeons  forth,  is  only  the  more  beau- 
tiful for  its  shielding. 

"  And  in  the  summer,"  began  Eva,  as  she  stood 
for  the  last  time  a  maiden  among  the  white  enam- 
elled furniture  of  her  room.  On  the  bed,  her  travel- 
ling gown  of  royal  blue,  Archie's  choice,  lay  ready 
for  her  to  put  on  and  her  ringers  were  busy  with 
the  fastenings  of  the  ivory  satin.  "  In  the  summer 
you  must  come  to  us  for  a  long  visit,  Mother." 

Mrs.  Smart,  though  content,  perhaps  even  pleased 
to  have  her  daughter  married,  had  been  all  day  on 
the  verge  of  tears.  The  necessary  preparations, 


TREASURE   TROVE  221 

many  of  which  had  been  made  by  her  own  capable 
hands,  had  left  her  tired;  and  a  marriage  is  in  its 
own  way  as  emotional  a  matter  as  a  death.  It  had 
seemed  to  her  only  right  and  proper  that  Colonel 
Smart  should  give  his  niece  away;  but  when  she 
saw  him  by  the  chancel  steps,  she  thought  with  a 
longing  that  was  pain,  of  the  man  in  whose  place 
he  stood;  and  so  thinking  remembered  the  day  of 
her  own  wedding,  and  the  shy  hopes  and  shyer 
fears  attendant  on  it.  Richard  and  she  had  been 
married  in  Ashwater  Church  early  one  autumn 
morning,  a  misty  morning  when  the  grass  had  been 
heavily  beaded  and  she  had  only  been  able  to  find 
a  few  late  rain-washed  flowers  for  the  breakfast 
table  to  which  they  would  return.  It  had  been  a 
very  different  wedding  to  this;  but  William  had 
come  to  it,  William  who  of  all  her  husband's  family 
alone  was  staunch,  William  who  had  remained  their 
friend.  Again  and  again  during  the  service  the 
tears  had  dimmed  Minty's  eyes  and  she  had  blinked 
them  away ;  and  now  that  her  young  daughter  say- 
ing so  lightly  "  we "  and  "  us,"  having  already, 
though  her  marriage  was  not  yet  three  hours  old, 
a  home  that  was  not  her  home,  begged  her,  as  one 
outside  the  innermost  circle,  to  visit  them,  her 
bosom  swelled  again.  She  took  the  satin  skirt  from 
the  girl's  hand  and  busied  herself  over  its  soft 
breadths,  and  as  she  smoothed  and  folded,  her  self- 
control  gradually  came  back  to  her. 


222  TREASURE    TROVE 

"  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  come,"  she  said  simply, 
"  but  it  must  be  when  Willy  has  his  holidays,  for  I 
shall  not  be  able  to  leave  him  alone  here,  now  that 
you  are — are  married." 

"  No,"  said  Eva  softly,  "  no,  of  course  not,  not 

now  that  I "  she  turned  to  pick  up  the  bodice 

of  the  blue  gown,  "  am  married."  And  then,  quite 
suddenly  she  was  in  her  mother's  arms  and  the  two 
women  were  sobbing  frankly  and  undisguisedly. 
Ah  yes,  a  marriage  day  is  one  of  many  and  strange 
emotions,  and  it  is  a  curious  bride  who  can  go 
through  it  from  dawn  to  dusk  without  a  tear. 

But  the  promise  made  while  Eva  was  turning 
from  a  white  rose  with  satin  petals  and  a  blush 
heart,  into  an  ordinary  tailor-made  traveller,  was 
a  promise  which  had  to  be  kept;  and  as  a  conse- 
quence another  engagement  fell  to  pieces.  Mrs. 
Smart  could  not  both  visit  Eva  and  set  Tamsin 
free  to  go  to  Cornwall ;  and  when  she  realised  that 
she  must  disappoint  her  mother's  old  servant,  she 
made  amends  with  a  remorseful  promise  for  the 
following  year,  a  promise  which  she  took  care  to 
fulfil. 

During  the  eighteen  months  which  elapsed  be- 
fore she  was  called  upon  to  do  so,  a  new  but  not 
wholly  unexpected  interest  became  hers ;  for  toward 
the  end  of  Eva's  first  year  of  married  life,  the  girl 
came  home,  and  in  the  white  chamber  of  her  girl- 
hood with  Mrs.  Smart  to  nurse  and  cherish  her, 
gave  birth  to  her  firstborn.  For  several  months 


TREASURE    TROVE  223 

before  this  event  Mrs.  Smart  could  think  of  noth- 
ing else.  The  tiny  life  already  stirring  beneath  her 
daughter's  heart  was  to  her  much  what  her  own 
babies  had  been,  and  she  waited  its  entrance  into 
the  world,  with  as  much  interest  as  its  mother. 
There  might  be  wars  and  rumours  of  wars,  dynasties 
might  die  out,  countries  change  hands,  but  to  the 
two  women  bending  over  an  old  carven  cradle  these 
things  so  long  as  they  came  not  anigh  them,  mat- 
tered very  little.  Man  builds  for  what  he  calls 
eternity,  and  his  buildings  fall  before  the  storm 
and  the  fire  and  the  earthquake;  woman  gives  life 
and  when  all  else  is  swept  away,  that  remains.  It 
is  older  than  the  oldest  monument,  it  will  outlast 
the  newest  law,  it  is  the  only  thing  that  though  it 
change  is  permanent,  though  again  and  again  it 
sheds  its  outer  covering  is  for  all  time.  And  there 
are  women  who  would  rather  do  the  finite,  showy 
work  of  a  man,  than  their  own! 

Jocelyn  Archibald  Flowerdew  was  nine  months 
old  when  his  mother  brought  him  to  stay  with  Mrs. 
Smart  at  Oldmeadow  Farm.  His  father  had  been 
asked  to  take  some  boys  to  Norway  for  their  sum- 
mer holidays;  and  the  school  not  having  as  yet 
taken  that  upward  start  which  its  headmaster  term 
after  term  confidently  expected  of  it,  Archie  was 
glad  to  accept  the  offer. 

The  summer  had  begun  early,  June  having 
come  in  with  a  gush  of  heat,  that  too  great  heat 
which  means  anxious  work  for  the  doctors,  and 


224  TREASURE   TROVE 

Eva  with  a  vision  of  the  cool  river  and  the  oak 
trees  had  eagerly  accepted  her  mother's  invita- 
tion. She  and  little  Jocelyn  would  come  on  the 
first  of  August.  On  the  last  day  of  July,  therefore, 
Mrs.  Smart,  her  mind  full  of  infantile  necessities, 
had  come  over,  only  however  to  find  that  Tamsin 
had  made  all  possible  arrangements  for  their  com- 
fort. 

"  Ah  be  that  glad  to  have  'ee  here,"  she  said,  her 
little  face  all  radiant  wrinkles.  "  And  Susan  her'll 
look  after  'ee,  her've  come  on  astonishin'  o'  late." 
The  two  women  were  walking  slowly  down  the 
middle  path  of  the  vegetable  garden.  On  each  side 
tall  bushes  of  lavender,  only  lately  denuded  of  their 
purple  heads,  alternated  with  patches  of  sage  and 
thyme  and  beyond  them  were  rows  of  winter  kale, 
and  rank  upon  rank  of  bright  green  lettuces.  Tam- 
sin looked  about  her  with  proud  and  thankful  eyes. 
"  Ah'm  a-doin'  well,  my  dear  life,"  she  said.  "  Four 
cows  Ah've  got  and  the  li'l  heifer  has  turned  out 
better'n  Ah  thought  she  wud." 

"  How  about  the  turkeys,  Tamsin  ?  " 

"  Comin'  on  fine  they  be ;  last  year  too  they  fatted 
well  and  Ah  sold'n  for  more'n  Ah  thought  Ah'd  get. 
Turkeys  if  'ee  can  rear  'em,  pays."  They  paused 
by  the  nearest  of  the  chicken  runs.  "  Ah'm  minded 
to  take  a  pair  o'  chickens  wi'  me  to  Port  Isaac  and 
a  ham.  Must  show  they  what  us  can  do." 

"  How  long  will  you  be  away  ?  "  Willy  had 
taken  a  month's  holiday  and  was  bicycling  in  Scot- 


TREASURE   TROVE  225 

land  and  she  was  in  no  hurry  to  return  to  The 
Laurels. 

"  'Tis  a  fortnight  'scursion,  why,  Ah  did  tell  'ee 
so." 

"  I  believe  you  did,  but  I  have  had  so  many  other 
things  to  thing  about  that  I  forgot." 

"  Aw  likely."  To  Tamsin  the  length  of  her  holi- 
day had  been  one  of  the  many  points  upon  which  she 
had  dwelt  during  the  months  of  patient  waiting  and 
anticipation,  but  she  could  see  that  to  Mrs.  Smart 
it  would  be  a  trifling  matter.  "  Ah  reckon,"  she  said 
thoughtfully,  realising  what  an  upheaval  in  her 
methodical  life  this  fortnight  of  idleness  must  mean, 
"  Ah  rackon  Ah'll  be  bra-ave  and  glad  to  get  back." 
Once  more  her  eyes  strayed  over  the  gentle  slope 
of  the  big  field.  At  its  foot,  the  river  gurgled  gently 
among  its  stones.  The  hot  and  rainless  weather 
had  shrunken  it  to  half  its  width,  but  the  noise  of 
running  water  persisted,  an  undertone  of  cool  sound 
that  filled  in  all  the  pauses.  A  string  of  geese  were 
trailing  homeward  across  the  field,  the  hens  were 
going  to  roost,  the  old  grey  pony  was  looking  over 
the  hedge.  His  mistress  put  her  hand  into  her 
pocket,  brought  out  a  cube  of  sugar  and  they  strolled 
across  to  give  it  to  him.  The  scene  was  peaceful  and 
drowsy,  for  the  day  had  been  hot  and  now  every- 
thing seemed  to  be  seeking  sleep. 

"  Miss  Eva'll  stop  till  Ah  get  back,  won't  her?  " 
Tamsin  said,  a  little  eager  note  in  her  voice.  Her 
own  people  were  very  far  away  and  dim,  but  for  a 


226  TREASURE    TROVE 

score  of  years  Mrs.  Lovell  had  been  dear  and  her 
children  near.  "  The  ba-aby'll  be  growin'  away 
fine  and  Ah  want  to  see'n." 

"  You  must  of  course,"  said  Mrs.  Smart.  She 
found  it  natural  that  Tamsin  should  want  to  make 
her  grandson's  acquaintance.  "  He  is  so  fine  and 
sturdy  and  can  nearly  stand  and  he  has  little  curls 
coming  all  over  his  head." 

"  L'il  dinky  curls  ?  "  said  the  Cornishwoman  with 
enthusiasm  as  they  turned  back  across  the  field. 
"  Ah'll  love  too  see'n." 

Eva  did  not  reach  the  farm  until  some  hours 
after  Tamsin  had  left  it.  Her  mother  met  her  at 
the  station  and  the  two  women  put  Jocelyn  into  his 
white  baby-carriage  and  wheeled  him  along  the 
broad  grass  riding  of  the  country  road. 

"  It's  been  a  long  hot  term,"  Eva  Flowerdew 
said,  "  and  I'm  glad  to  get  here,  glad  too  for  Archie 
to  go  to  Norway."  She  was  still  very  much  in 
love  with  her  husband,  but  she  was  physically  a 
little  run  down.  Money  had  been  scarce  and  in 
order  to  help  she  had  given  generously  of  her  time 
and  strength,  too  generously  thought  Mrs.  Smart, 
who  was  concerned  to  see  the  dark  circles  under 
her  eyes  and  the  thin  line  of  an  erstwhile  rounded 
cheek. 

"  When  are  you  going  to  wean  that  boy  ?  "  she 
asked,  as  she  pushed  vigorously  at  the  baby  car- 
riage. 

How  fortunate  she  was  to  have  her  grandchil- 


TREASURE    TROVE  227 

dren  while  she  was  still  so  strong,  while  she  could 
still  enjoy  them,  play  with  them,  help  them. 

"Well,  I  ought  to  do  it  now.  He  was  nine 
months  old  last  week." 

"  Then  you  shall  and  I'll  take  him  at  night." 

"  Oh  Mother,  how  good  of  you!  I  was  just  won- 
dering how  to  manage." 

"  Dear  little  man,"  and  Mrs.  Smart  looked  down 
at  the  round  face  and  bright  eyes.  "  I  don't  believe 
he'll  mind." 

"  No,"  said  Eva  softly,  "  but  I  shall." 

"  There  will  be  others,"  comforted  Mrs.  Smart. 

"Ah,  but  he's  the  first,  no  other  can  ever  be 
quite  what  he  has  been." 

Mrs.  Smart  glanced  at  her  daughter.  How 
quickly  the  child  was  discovering  the  secrets  of 
life!  Looking  at  her  she  was  again  struck  by  an 
indefinable  expression,  a  something  of  worry  and 
anxiety  which  had  dimmed  the  careless  gaiety  of 
Eva's  youth.  "How  is  the  school  doing?"  she 
asked  abruptly. 

"  Archie  says  it  is  a  case  of  hastening  slowly, 
but  we  do  really  want  a  few  more  boys.  He  talks 
of  advertising  in  the  Irish  papers  and  of  a  partner 
who  would  increase  the  connection." 

"Any  new  boys  coming  next  term?" 

"  One,"  said  her  daughter,  and  suppressed  the 
fact  that  two  were  leaving. 

"  I  can't  quite  understand  it,"  Mrs.  Smart  re- 
marked, as  much  to  herself  as  to  Eva.  When  she 


228  TREASURE   TROVE 

had  gone  into  the  matter,  previous  to  paying  over 
the  two  thousand  pounds,  the  school  had  certainly 
seemed  in  a  flourishing  condition.  Mr.  Flowerdew 
had  now  had  eighteen  months  in  which  to  try  his 
theories  with  regard  to  advertisement  and  energetic, 
up-to-date  management,  why  then  was  there  as 
yet  no  result?  "  You  do  the  housekeeping  and  save 
him  the  cost  of  a  matron,  that  ought  to  be  a  help." 

"  I  daresay  it  is,  but — well,  I  don't  think  I'm  a 
very  good  manager." 

"Not  a  good  manager?"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Smart 
in  amazement,  "  but  dearie  I've  taught  you  all  I 
know." 

"  Still,  catering  for  so  many  boys  runs  away  with 
more  money  than  it  should,  at  least  Archie  says  so." 

"  Have  you  your  account  book  with  you  ?  " 

"  I  brought  it  down.  I've  been  worried  about 
the  housekeeping  and  I  thought  perhaps  you  would 
help  me." 

And  one  afternoon  when  she  and  her  mother 
were  sitting  sewing  under  the  shade  of  a  walnut- 
tree  by  the  river,  with  the  baby  lying  on  a  rug  at 
their  feet  and  the  whisper  of  the  water  in  their  ears, 
Eva  produced  a  little  packet  of  tradesmen's  books 
and  the  long  slim  reckoner  in  which  she  kept  her 
accounts.  Mrs.  Smart  studied  them  in  silence  for 
a  time. 

"  Somebody  is  extravagant,"  she  said  at  last. 

Mrs.  Flowerdew's  face  which  in  the  peace  of  un- 
eventful days  was  losing  its  look  of  anxiety,  grew 


TREASURE    TROVE  229 

suddenly  hot.    "  Archie  is  difficult  to  feed,"  she  said, 
"  he  has  a  very  tiresome  digestion." 

"  But  sweetbreads  at  half  a  crown  each !  Why 
don't  you  give  him  brains  ?  " 

"  He  knows  the  difference." 

"  Humph ! "  said  the  elder  woman,  pursing  up 
lips  of  disapproval,  "  and  birds — birds — birds." 

"  We  only  have  them  occasionally,"  pleaded  the 
daughter.  "  Archie  says  that  in  the  season  you 
ought  to  have  a  bird  every  evening." 

"  But  you  are  young  people  just  beginning,  you 
cannot  afford  these  luxuries."  Though  she  spoke 
quietly,  she  was  inwardly  much  disturbed.  The 
tradesmen's  books  gave  unmistakable  evidence  of 
rash  expenditure,  and  if  in  spite  of  Eva's  careful 
hand  an  undue  amount  of  money  ran  away  in  that 
direction,  it  was  unlikely  that  thrift  was  being  ex- 
ercised in  other  departments.  She  went  on  with 
her  methodical  examination  of  the  books. 

"  Mother,"  said  Eva,  interrupting  her,  "  what  do 
you  think  people  like  ourselves  ought  to  spend  on 
our  wine-bill  a  week  ?  " 

"  Your  wine  bill  ?  "  cried  her  astonished  parent. 

"  I  mean  on  that  part  of  our  grocery  bill." 

"  We,"  said  Mrs.  Smart,  "  spend  eighteenpence. 
Willy  has  beer  with  his  dinner  as  you  know,  but 
he  doesn't  take  more  than  one  glass  and  I,  like  you, 
have  always  drunk  water.  A  Jew  I  once  met  told 
me  that  the  reason  his  people  were  able  to  save  out 
of  a  small  income  was  because  they  never  wasted 


230  TREASURE    TROVE 

their  money  on  liquor  and  that  what  we  spent  on 
soda-water,  ale  and  spirits  always  amazed  him." 

"  Eighteenpence  a  week,"  said  Eva  slowly,  "  that 
is  very  little." 

"  What  does  Archie  drink  ?  "  asked  her  mother. 

"  He  likes  a  little  whiskey  and  soda  with  his 
meals."  She  was  consciously  throwing  dust  in  Mrs. 
Smart's  eyes,  for  Archie  liked  more  than  a  little 
and  she,  though  she  excused  him  even  to  herself, 
was  becoming  aware  of  it. 

"  With  his  meals !  "  repeated  the  other.  "  You 
don't  mean  to  say  he  takes  it  with  his  luncheon  ?  " 

"  He  wouldn't  enjoy  his  food  without,  mother, 
and  I  must  think  of  that." 

Mrs.  Smart  looked  at  her  seriously  for  a  mo- 
ment, but  she  said  no  more.  Until  the  girl  would 
acknowledge  that  her  husband  was  weak  and  self- 
indulgent,  nothing  could  be  done.  She  did  not 
know  that  the  two,  sometimes  three,  bottles  of  whis- 
key a  week,  which  Eva's  grocery  book  shewed — 
that  grocery  book  which  had  been  so  carefully  left 
at  home, — were  the  cause  of  her  frequent  fits  of 
depression.  But  Archie  was  gone  to  Norway  and 
in  Norway,  so  his  wife  understood,  a  beneficent  law 
had  been  passed  which  forbade  the  sale  of  spirits 
unless  under  doctors'  orders.  "  You  see,"  said  the 
girl,  "  it  is  all  very  different  when  a  man  has  a  poor 
digestion." 

"  Well,  well,"  said  her  mother  briskly,  "  I  dare- 
say a  bottle  lasts  you  a  fortnight  and  that  does  not 


TREASURE    TROVE  231 

mean  a  great  outlay.  You  can  get  a  good  whiskey 
for  three  and  six." 

Eva  looked  uncomfortable.  "  When  people  drop 
in,"  she  said  vaguely,  "  of  course  we  must  have 
spirits  for  them  and  sometimes  that  means  a  little 
extra."  She  did  not  add  as  she  might  have  done, 
that  Archie  preferred  a  whiskey  at  four  shillings 
the  bottle. 

"  Oh,  of  course,  but  I'm  sorry  it's  the  custom ; 
I've  long  thought  it  a  pity  to  offer  spirits  to  boys, 
for  they  don't  like  to  refuse,  and  bye  and  bye  they 
get  to  like  the  stuff." 

Eva  nodded,  for  she  was  by  this  time  entirely  of 
her  mother's  opinion.  "  Life  is  rather  a  struggle," 
she  observed  presently.  "  I  suppose  with  young 
people  just  beginning  it  is  bound  to  be." 

"  Well  I  think  so,  at  least  with  most.  You  see 
the  income  is  small  and  the  babies  are  coming  and 
the  wife's  health  suffers;  but  those  years  are  also 
the  most  interesting.  The  love's  fresh,  and  the 
babies  are  fresh  and  the  work's  fresh.  Afterwards 
well,  the  sparkle  seems  to  die  out  of  it  all  and  you 
settle  down." 

"  You  see,  Mother,"  Eva  was  pursuing  her  own 
thoughts  rather  than  listening  to  Mrs.  Smart's 
homely  wisdom,  "  it  is  not  so  very  wonderful  that 
we  don't  get  as  many  new  boys  as  we  want." 

"Why  dearie?" 

"Well,  Archie's  manner " 

"  I  know." 


232  TREASURE   TROVE 

"  He  doesn't  mean  it  of  course,  and  he  says  when 
a  man  is  over  thirty  he  can't  change  and  perhaps  he 
can't,  but  it  is  unfortunate.  Now  the  other  day  a 
Mr.  Salmon  came  to  look  over  the  school.  He  was 
a  tea-broker,  whatever  that  may  be,  and  his  fat 
was  all  in  one  place  or  mostly  all,  and  he  was  dark, 
with  whiskers  and  a  bald  head,  you  know  the  sort 
of  man?" 

"  Yes." 

"  If  Archie  had  only  happened  to  be  out,  I  would 
have  taken  him  round  and  he'd  have  gone  away 
thinking  himself  no  end  of  a  fine  fellow  and  the 
little  Salmons  would  have  come  to  us." 

"  But  Archie  was  at  home  ?  " 

"  Yes,  so  he  took  the  man  round,  and  oh,  he 
looked  so  handsome  beside  that  common  little  tub 
of  a  man !  He  has  a  fine  head,  you  know  Mother, 
and  such  a  graceful  walk." 

"  Yes  Eva,  but  the  man." 

"  Oh,  of  course  Archie  made  him  feel  just  how 
common  and  uninteresting  he  was;  so  he  crawled 
away  from  our  front  door  and  his  sons  are  going 
elsewhere.  He  has  five  sons." 

"  Perhaps  Archie  doesn't  want  that  class  of  boy  ?  " 

"  That's  what  he  says.  But  Mother,  we  must 
start  with  what  we  can  get." 

Mrs.  Smart  closed  the  last  of  the  account  books 
and  slipped  round  the  collection  an  elastic  band. 
"  It's  a  blessing  you  have  so  much  commonsense," 
she  said. 


TREASURE    TROVE  233 

"  Archie  will  come  to  it  in  time,"  pursued  her 
daughter  with  a  smile.  "  After  all  the  wolf  outside 
the  door  and  a  baby  inside  make  a  difference  to  a 
man's  view  of  matters.  Already  I  have  half  per- 
suaded him  to  let  me  look  after  the  preliminaries. 
The  fact  is  the  dear  boy  is  too  clever  and  parents 
like  you  to  be  commonplace.  Now  I  suit  them  beau- 
tifully." 

"  They  say  '  experience  teaches/ "  replied  her 
mother,  "  but  I  know  of  a  master  whose  lessons  are 
better  learned." 

"And  that?" 

"  Is  necessity,"  replied  Mrs.  Smart  and  Eva, 
secretly  anxious,  could  only  agree  with  her. 

The  fortnight,  day  after  day  spent  with  little 
Jocelyn  who  viewed  his  mother's  conduct  with 
equanimity  and  settled  to  his  new  food  with  a  mas- 
culine appreciation  of  variety,  passed  all  too  quickly. 
Long  sleep-filled  nights  gave  Eva  back  her  roses, 
and  the  care  of  the  farm  broods  distracted  her 
thoughts.  She  went  with  her  mother  from  barn 
to  byre,  as  interested  as  had  been  her  forebears,  in 
all  that  had  to  do  with  dairy,  hen-roost  and  the 
rearing  of  stock.  So  engrossed  were  mother  and 
daughter  indeed  that  the  day  of  Tamsin's  return 
came  upon  them  as  a  surprise;  and  if  Susan  Field 
had  not  spoken  of  it,  it  is  doubtful  whether  either 
of  them  would  have  remembered. 

"  You  don't  mean  to  say  it's  the  fifteenth  ?  "  Mrs. 
Smart  had  exclaimed.  "  Dear  me  and  somehow 


234  TREASURE   TROVE 

I'd  looked  forward  to  seeing  those  late  broods  out 
before  she  came  back." 

"  I  can't  have  been  here  a  whole  fortnight !  "  Eva 
had  cried  as  she  picked  up  her  fat  baby,  preparatory 
to  carrying  him  off  to  the  orchard  for  the  morning. 
"  Really  this  is  a  wonderful  place,  I  never  felt  so 
well  in  my  life." 

"  When  you  first  came  Jocelyn  was  almost  too 
heavy  for  you  to  lift,"  smiled  her  mother;  and  Eva, 
to  show  her  strength,  tossed  him  about  in  her  arms, 
the  baby  gurgling  and  crowing  with  joy. 

"  Ah,  but  it's  different  now,"  she  murmured  and 
stood  still  for  a  moment  meditating.  "  After  all," 
she  said  at  last,  "  one's  troubles  seem  to  be  mainly 
a  matter  of  health,  I  feel  now  as  if  mine  had  been 
only  night-mares." 

And  Mrs.  Smart  hoped  that  her  words  might  be 
prophetic,  she  hoped  but  she  was  a  woman  of  little 
faith. 

When  Tamsin,  hot  and  dusty,  made  her  appear- 
ance, both  mother  and  daughter  exclaimed  at  the 
change  which  fourteen  days  among  old  friends  had 
wrought  in  her.  The  Tamsin  who  had  left  Old- 
meadow  Farm  had  been  an  ageing  woman,  with 
thin  brown  hair  drawn  tightly  back  into  a  small 
knob,  and  a  manner  upon  which  long  servitude  had 
laid  its  repressing  hand.  The  Tamsin  who  re- 
turned was  a  composed  personage  with  a  young 
note  in  her  voice,  and  a  restrained  but  evident  sense 
of  her  own  importance. 


TREASURE    TROVE  235 

"  Ah've  had  a  bra-ave  time,"  she  said  when  ques- 
tioned, "  and  Ah'm  made  over  that's  what  'tes.  A 
person  can't  feel  old,  when  she've  a  father  and 
mother  still  fine  and  hearty." 

But  Mrs.  Smart,  her  eyes  upon  the  raised  and 
curled  hair  beneath  Tamsin's  black  hat  opined  that 
there  was  more  in  the  matter  than  the  mere  re-dis- 
covery of  her  parents,  and  the  Cornishwoman  did 
not  altogether  deny  it.  Eva  however,  with  her  feel- 
ing that  the  world  is  for  the  young,  was  conscious 
of  the  absurdity  of  her  mother's  suggestion.  Tarn- 
sin  was  fifty- four,  an  old  woman;  how  silly  of  her 
to  set  her  hat  on  at  an  angle  and  swathe  her  throat 
in  imitation  lace.  She  had  even  bought  herself  a 
coloured  parasol.  What  did  she  want  with  para- 
sols? Those  brown  and  wrinkled  features  had 
hitherto  faced  all  weathers,  rain  and  shine;  why  at 
fifty-four  should  they  feel  the  need  of  shelter  and 
protection?  Mrs.  Flowerdew  did  not  join  in  her 
mother's  gentle  rallying  of  the  old  servant,  indeed 
she  thought  it  absurd  and  almost  undignified,  for 
as  yet,  though  wife  and  mother,  she  stood  only  on 
the  threshold  of  life  and  believed  an  old  body  must 
necessarily  house  an  old  heart. 

After  Susan  Field  was  gone  home — she  slept 
with  her  parents  in  a  thatched,  white-walled  cot 
further  down  the  road — the  three  women  carried 
their  chairs  into  the  garden  and  planted  them  about 
the  broad  doorstep.  Jocelyn  being  asleep  in  an 
upper  room,  they  might  not  stray  from  the  neigh- 


236  TREASURE   TROVE 

bourhood  of  his  latticed  window,  moreover,  Tarn- 
sin  was  tired  after  her  journey.  She  leant  back  in 
the  old  basket  chair,  and  her  Cornish  voice,  blurred 
and  soft,  stole  out  upon  the  quiet,  as  she  recounted 
her  doings  in  little  grey  Port  Isaac. 

"  Two  and  twanty  year  Ah  bin  away,  and  Ah 
cud  find  my  way  same  as  if't  had  been  yesterday." 

"  But  the  people,"  said  Eva,  "  they  must  have 
altered,  they  must  have  grown  older."  She  did  not 
yet  know  that  people  of  the  same  generation  do  not 
seem  to  each  other  to  greatly  change,  whatever  the 
flight  of  time. 

Tamsin,  with  what  on  younger  cheeks  would 
have  been  a  blush,  admitted  that  they  were  older, 
but  not  so  very;  she  had  thought  to  see  a  greater 
difference,  and  had  found  them  much  the  same,  all 
her  old  friends.  "  The  sea  have  taken  some,  it  do 
take  a  big  toll  of  the  men,"  she  said  sadly. 

"  And  the  women  ?  "  asked  Eva. 

"  They  dies."  But  her  voice  was  no  longer  sad. 
Some  poor  creature's  passing  was  evidently  unre- 
gretted.  "  Aw  there,  Ah  may's  well  tell  'ee."  She 
paused,  striving  in  the  dusk  to  read  the  faces  turned 
towards  her,  and  failing.  "  Ah  do  think  to  marry !  " 
she  said,  and  without  waiting  for  their  comments 
hurried  on.  "  'Tes  la-ate,  Ah  knaw,  but  'tisn't  as  if 
he  was  a  stranger,  for  'ee've  heard  me  speak  o'  Jan 
Honey,  as  Ah  knawed  when  Ah  was  a  maid  going 
to  school." 

Mrs.  Smart  nodded  kindly.    She  might  have  mar- 


TREASURE    TROVE  237 

ried  again  if  she  had  chosen,  and  she  knew  that 
men  and  women  love  and  love  again,  whatever  the 
time  of  day. 

"'Iss,  Ah  knawed'n  then  and  us  sweethearted  a 
bit,  but  my  aunt  up  to  Launceston  was  in  want  of  a 
little  maid  for  to  help  her  about  the  house  and 
mother  fitted  me  out  and  Ah  went,  and  then  Ah 
come  here.  Jan,  a  cudn't  write,  so  a  married  Love- 
day  Blake  of  Delabole.  Her  father  worked  in  the 
quarries  and  times  at  the  fishing,  and  her'd  always 
wanted  Jan.  Last  year  she  come  to  die,  and  their 
children  all  being  out  and  married,  he  fare  lonely. 
And  then  me  coming  back,  it  seemed  as  if  it  was 
to  be,  but  he  can't  come  here,  he've  got  a  trawler 
of's  own  and  two  of's  lads  work'n,  so  he'm  Cap'n 
Honey,  and  'twudn't  suit  him  to  be  in  a  pla-ace  like 
this." 

"  Then  what  will  you  do  ?  "  said  Eva  curiously. 
The  recital  of  this  long  past  story  had  had  a  soften- 
ing effect.  After  all,  Tamsin,  withered  old  apple, 
had  had  a  cherished  sweetness  at  the  core  of  her. 

"  My  dear  life,  if  'ee  cud  tell  me  what  to  do,  Ah'd 
thank  'ee.  Ah'm  fair  torn  in  half  about' n.  Ah'd 
like  fine  to  live  in  Port  Isaac  among  they  as  Ah've 
knawed  since  Ah  was  so  high,  and  yet  Ah'm  bound 
to  be  here.  There's  no  gettin'  out  of  it  either  way." 

"  What  does  Captain  Honey  say  ?  " 

"  He  says,  '  Give  over  the  farmin'  and  Ah'll  give 
over  the  fishin','  and  us  cud  do't.  Us  have  saved  a 
bra-ave  bit." 


238  TREASURE    TROVE 

"  Give  over  the  farming?  "  repeated  Mrs.  Smart. 
The  time  had  not  yet  come  for  the  Oldmeadow  Es- 
tate to  be  cut  up  into  lots  and  let  for  building,  and 
she  wondered  what  she  would  do  if  the  place  were 
left  on  her  hands.  She  did  not  fancy  seeing 
strangers  in  her  mother's  house. 

Tamsin  looked  away  across  the  dim  grey  land- 
scape. "  Ah  don't  think  as  Ah  could,"  she  said 
despairingly.  It  was  evident  that  she  had  spoken 
no  more  than  the  truth  when  she  had  said  she  was 
"  fair  torn  in  half  about'n." 

"  Poor  Captain  Honey,"  said  Eva.  She  won- 
dered how  Tamsin  could  hesitate,  when,  after  so 
many  years,  she  and  her  early  love  had  had  the 
path  made  straight  before  them. 

"  There  'tis,"  said  the  distracted  maiden.  "  Ah 
mayn't  never  get  another  offer." 

Mrs.  Smart  laughed  softly,  but  Eva  only  felt 
annoyed.  "  If  that  is  the  way  you  look  at  it,"  she 
said  severely,  "  you  might  as  well  stay  on  here." 

"  Jan  says  him'll  wait  till  neist  year,"  continued 
Tamsin,  far  from  grasping  Mrs.  Flowerdew's  train 
of  thought,  "but  there's  more  women  nor  men  to 
Port  Isaac,  seeing  as  a  many  that  go  down  to  the 
sea  in  ships  don't  never  return.  Still,"  and  the 
doleful,  anxious  voice  took  on  a  more  cheerful  tone, 
"  still  my  sister,  as  he  did  look  at,  no  doubt  because 
her  features  me  a  li'l  bit,  her  hasn't  any  savings. 
He'd  have  to  support  she,  and  he  hasn't  more'n 
enough  for'mself.  That'll  make  a  difference  to  he." 


TREASURE    TROVE  239 

She  nodded  shrewdly.  "  Oh,  'iss,  Ah  rackon  him'll 
keep  his  pramuss.  Ah  rackon  him'll  wait  till  neist 
summer." 

"You  mean  to  go  down  again?"  asked  Mrs. 
Smart.  She  was  purposely  withholding  her  opinion 
of  the  marriage. 

"  Ah  do  want  to,"  admitted  Tamsin.  By  then 
she  would  have  made  up  her  mind,  would  have  de- 
cided whether  Captain  Honey  or  Oldmeadow  Farm 
stood  higher  in  her  regard. 

Eva  pushed  back  her  chair.  "  I  think  I  hear 
Jocelyn,"  she  said  in  an  unsympathetic  voice. 
"  Good-night,  Tamsin ;  mother,  you'll  come  to  my 
room,  won't  you  ?  "  and  she  went  in. 

"  Seeing  as  her's  married,  she  don't  feel  to  take 
an  interest  in  a  maiden's  affairs,"  said  the  Cornish- 
woman,  and  again  Mrs.  Smart  laughed. 

"  Eva  doesn't  understand,"  she  said.  "  Young 
people  are  like  that,  between  twenty  and  thirty  is  a 
lifetime  to  them.  As  for  you,  Tamsin,  well,  I  think 
I  should  like  to  do  this  again.  I  don't  know  when 
I  have  enjoyed  a  fortnight  so  much !  " 

And  Tamsin  thanked  her  with  a  fervour  which 
had  in  it  more  than  a  touch  of  youth.  After  all, 
the  twenties  have  not  the  monopoly  of  sweet  and 
desirable  things. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

LITTLE  Jocelyn  was  cutting  teeth,  and  to  his  young 
mother's  alarm,  his  temperature  had  risen.  The 
term  was  in  full  swing,  Mr.  Flowerdew  taking  with 
him  a  pile  of  exercise  books  had  gone  to  his  study, 
the  boys  were  in  bed,  and  Eva  was  alone  with  her 
feverish  baby.  She  was  anxious  with  the  anxiety  of 
inexperience;  and  all  the  terrible  stories  of  childish 
misadventure  that  she  had  ever  heard  came  crowd- 
ing into  her  mind.  Little  Jocelyn  wailed  and  re- 
fused his  food,  and  at  last  his  mother  felt  it  would 
be  better  to  send  for  the  doctor.  After  all,  the 
trouble  might  not  be  his  teeth,  he  might  be  sicken- 
ing for  some  little  ailment.  There  were  one  or  two 
suspicious  spots  on  his  legs;  and,  on  the  whole,  she 
would  be  very  glad  to  shift  the  responsibility  from 
her  shoulders  to  those  of  someone  with  a  little 
knowledge. 

But  before  sending,  she  must  of  course  consult 
her  husband.  He  might  not  think  it  necessary,  for 
the  baby  was  a  strong  and  healthy  child,  and  the 
expense  of  a  doctor's  bill  was  one  which  they  were 
not  anxious  to  incur.  Archie  might  tell  her  she 
was  making  a  fuss  about  nothing — he  had  a  marital 
way  of  calming  her  fears — and  that  it  would  be 
better  to  wait  till  the  morning. 

240 


TREASURE    TROVE  241 

Giving  the  fretful  baby  to  the  nursemaid,  she  went 
down  to  the  study,  and  with  her  mind  occupied  by 
other  matters,  came  full  upon  the  trouble  which  for 
months  she  had  been  unconsciously  stalking. 

The  study  at  Morton  House  was  the  most  com- 
fortable room  on  the  ground  floor.  Its  French  win- 
dows opened  upon  a  slope  of  greensward,  and  from 
the  hollows  below  a  solitary  beech,  spreading  and 
rounded,  lifted  its  smooth  bole  and  lofty  crown.  The 
room  itself,  though  small,  was  full  of  carefully  har- 
monised furniture,  most  of  which  had  been  pur- 
chased at  sales.  A  small  pedestal  writing-table 
stood  beneath  a  green-shaded  light,  and  on  one  side 
of  the  fireplace  in  a  deep  recess  was  a  divan.  This 
Eva  had  covered  with  the  dim  brocade  which  had 
been  her  grandmother's,  arid  on  it  her  husband  now 
lay  asleep. 

The  peace  and  quiet  of  the  little  room,  with  its 
dull-hued  carpet,  its  lining  of  books  and  its  small 
twinkling  fire,  fell  like  balm  upon  the  young 
mother's  anxious  heart.  She  felt  that  she  was  per- 
haps exaggerating  the  baby's  indisposition,  that  he 
was  only  fretful,  and  that  it  would  be  foolish  to 
send  for  a  medical  man.  Coming  quietly  forward, 
she  stood  for  a  minute  looking  down  upon  her  hus- 
band's broad  shoulders,  finely  moulded  head  and 
six  foot  of  graceful  length.  How  much  she  hoped 
that  little  Jocelyn  might  grow  up  to  resemble  him — 
Jocelyn,  whose  baby  head  was  already  sunned  over 
with  Smart  curls  and  in  whose  blue  eyes  specks  of 


242  TREASURE    TROVE 

brown  had  begun  to  form.  Of  Eva's  children,  it 
was  not  her  eldest  son  who  would  resemble  his 
father. 

As  she  stood  beside  her  husband,  her  admiring 
heart  full  of  his  perfections,  it  struck  her  that  he 
looked  tired.  He  was  lying  on  his  back,  and  his 
sleek  hair,  having  been  pushed  off  his  forehead,  had 
an  unkempt  appearance,  while  his  face,  except  for 
the  heavy,  deeply  coloured  eyelids,  was  curiously 
pale.  "  Poor  boy,"  she  thought,  her  anxiety  at  once 
transferred  from  the  one  to  the  other  of  her  treas- 
ures, "  I  won't  disturb  him,"  and  she  was  turning 
away  when  the  man  opened  his  eyes. 

For  a  moment  he  looked  as  if  he  did  not  recog- 
nise her,  and  then  a  foolish  smile  dawned  on  his 
face.  "  Kiss  me,"  he  said  rather  thickly. 

Eva  bent  over  him  unsuspiciously,  but  his  breath 
reeked  of  spirits,  and  though  the  strange  unpleasant 
smell  had  lately  grown  familiar,  a  misgiving  shot 
into  her  mind.  She  drew  back  and  stood  looking 
at  him. 

"  What's  er  matter?  "  he  asked,  in  the  same  thick 
voice. 

"What  have  you  been  doing,  Archie?"  When 
she  had  before  remarked  the  smell  of  whiskey,  he 
had  excused  himself  on  that  familiar  plea  of  in- 
digestion, and  Eva,  being  so  ignorant,  had  ac- 
cepted it. 

The  question  annoyed  him.  "  Nothing,"  he  said, 
with  a  sudden  change  from  fatuous  amiability  to 


TREASURE   TROVE  243 

ill-temper.  "What  should  I  have  been  doing? 
Tired,  so  went  to  sleep." 

"  Well,  it's  past  ten  now,  and  you  had  better 
come  to  bed." 

"  Oh,  yes — come  in  a  minute."  His  eyes  closed 
and  quite  suddenly  he  began  to  draw  deep  and  noisy 
breaths.  He  had  fallen  asleep  again,  and  so  quickly 
that  for  the  moment  she  felt  bewildered.  Then  she 
shook  him  a  little. 

"  Come  to  bed,"  she  said,  an  unwonted  firmness 
in  her  tone. 

Archie  opened  his  eyes,  smiled,  and  made  an 
effort  to  obey.  But  when  he  was  on  his  feet,  he 
staggered  suddenly;  and  Eva,  terrified,  caught  his 
arm  and  pushed  him  back  on  to  the  divan.  He 
looked  up  at  her,  the  foolish  smile  still  on  his  face. 
"  Been  on  the  spree  a  bit,"  he  said  explanatorily. 
"  Man  must  have  some  amusement.  Better  pres- 
ently." 

He  was  beyond  seeing  the  incredulous  horror  on 
her  face.  "  You  can't  walk  up  to  bed,"  she  said. 
She  was  not  asking  a  question,  she  was  affirming  a 
fact — oh,  not  a  fact,  surely  not.  It  was  ill-health — 
weakness — and  he  had  not  known  what  he  was  say- 
ing. It  could  not  be  that  such  a  terrible  thing  was 
true. 

Archie,  who  had  become  portentously  solemn, 
shook  his  head.  "  No,"  he  assented  amiably. 
;<  You're  ri'.  Can't  walk  up  to  bed.  Head's  clear 
enough,  but  legs  gone.  Be  all  right  presently.  You 


244  TREASURE   TROVE 

leave  me  alone,  like  good  girl,  and  I'll  have  a  sleep. 
Be  all  right  then."  And  before  his  wife's  horrified 
and  incredulous  gaze,  he  leant  back  among  the  cush- 
ions and  sank  into  a  drunken  slumber. 

As  if  automatically  the  girl  made  up  the  fire, 
turned  out  the  green-shaded  light,  and  put  a  rug 
over  the  sleeping  man.  It  was  evident  that  she 
must  leave  her  husband  to  sleep  off  the  first  effects 
of  what  he  had  taken,  and  that  she  could  do  no  good 
by  remaining  with  him,  while  Jocelyn  at  least  needed 
her.  Before  she  could  go  upstairs,  however,  a  num- 
ber of  small  details  claimed  her  attention.  Never 
before  had  Eva  thought  so  clearly,  been  so  ready, 
and  done  everything  so  easily.  The  outer  doors 
and  ground  floor  windows  were  quickly  secured,  the 
dormitories  visited,  the  lights  turned  out.  In  those 
upper  rooms  the  little  boys,  each  under  his  scarlet 
coverlet,  lay  fast  asleep,  their  smooth  young  faces 
flushed  with  slumber,  their  breath  coming  slowly 
and  healthfully.  Eva  wondered  if  they,  seemingly 
so  innocent,  had  only  to  grow  up  to  develop  some 
weakness,  some  hurtful  vice.  She  felt  a  little  bitter. 
Why  should  trouble  have  befallen  her;  how  had  she 
deserved  it,  she  who  did,  had  always  done,  the  best 
she  could?  For  some  minutes  she  stood  staring 
down,  in  anxious  fashion,  upon  a  little  curly-headed 
boy  whom,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  she  hardly  saw,  and 
then,  recollecting  herself  she  continued  her  round. 
But  everything  in  the  house  was  as  it  should  be. 
The  assistant  masters  were  in  their  rooms  the  serv- 


TREASURE   TROVE  245 

ants  in  bed,  and  she  could  turn  out  the  last  gas  jet 
and  go  to  her  own  place. 

With  a  feeling  of  relief  she  changed  her  simple 
dinner  dress  for  a  loose  woollen  gown  and  returned 
to  the  baby.  Now,  at  last,  she  would  be  free  to 
think,  to  realise  the  situation,  to  consider  what 
should  be  her  course  of  action. 

Little  Jocelyn  was  very  tired,  and  he  resented  the 
dull  pushing  ache  that  kept  him  from  his  sleep.  At 
sight  of  his  mother  he  put  out  his  arms  with  a  weary 
cry,  and  she  caught  him  to  her  with  the  echo  of  it. 
Oh,  the  comfort  of  him !  After  the  terrible  experi- 
ence of  the  past  hour,  what  a  relief  to  come  into  the 
firelit,  lamplit  peace  of  the  little  nursery! 

"  Go  to  bed,  Annie,"  she  said  gently.  "  I  can 
manage  with  baby  for  to-night,"  and  to  his  visible 
satisfaction,  she  seated  herself  with  him  in  a  low 
chair.  She  had  never  failed  him,  she  had  always 
brought  food  and  warmth  and  comfort,  surely  she 
would  be  able  to  help  him  now.  He  gazed  up  at 
her  out  of  his  tired  eyes,  with  the  faith  of  ignorance, 
that  faith  which  we  older  folk  give  to  the  In- 
finite. 

The  nurse  brought  some  prepared  invalid  food, 
for  Jocelyn  had  refused  his  milk.  "  Put  the  Benger 
ready  in  that  little  saucepan,"  said  Mrs.  Flowerdew, 
"  then  I  can  warm  it  without  getting  up."  And 
the  woman  having  done  so,  went  thankfully  away. 
There  was  no  crisis  in  her  life,  and  sleep  beckoned. 

Eva  held  the  baby  very  closely,  and  something  in 


246  TREASURE    TROVE 

the  clasp  of  her  arms,  in  the  measured  rocking  of 
the  little  chair,  soothed  him.  The  protesting  cries 
grew  fewer  and  less  loud,  and  at  times  the  eyelids 
closed  over  the  dark  eyes,  to  open  every  few  min- 
utes or  so  with  a  jerk,  as  the  pain,  the  gnawing,  cut- 
ting pain  returned. 

"  My  poor  little  son,"  said  Eva,  and  forgot  him 
presently  in  thinking  of  her  husband. 

She  had  been  a  wife  not  quite  two  years,  she  was 
only  twenty-three,  light-hearted,  happy,  a  mere  girl 
— and  she  had  had  this  terrible  awakening.  She 
had  been  forced  to  realise  that  the  man  she  loved, 
to  whom  indeed  she  was  devoted,  whom  she  had 
looked  on  as  a  prince  among  men,  that  he  drank. 
Eva  had  not  before  been  brought  into  contact  with 
this  particular  weakness  of  poor  humanity.  In  her 
family  it  was  unknown,  and  if  her  friends  had  not 
been  altogether  so  fortunate,  Eva  was  unaware  of  it. 
She  knew  many  things  vaguely.  Knew  that  some 
people  took  more  wine,  beer  and  spirits  than  was 
good  for  them;  indeed,  that  Mrs.  Thompson,  their 
doctor's  wife,  was  one  of  these  strangely  consti- 
tuted persons ;  but  she  had  not  imagined  the  evil  of 
drink  could  ever  come  anigh  her. 

If  it  had  only  been  a  cousin  or  a  friend  or  an 
acquaintance,  anyone  at  a  little  distance,  anyone  who 
did  not  matter;  but  it  was  her  husband.  She  felt 
both  horrified  and  repelled.  What  was  it  that  her 
mother  had  said  ?  "  Selfish  and  self-indulgent !  " 
And  had  she  not  averred  that  women  were  too  often 


TREASURE    TROVE  247 

"  a  cushion  "  when  they  should  have  been  "  an  en- 
couragement "  ?  She,  Eva,  would  not  be  a  cushion. 
She  did  not  feel  like  it,  not  in  the  least.  She  wanted 
this  horrible  state  of  affairs  to  come  to  an  end, 
wanted  to  find  again  the  Archie  of  other  days,  the 
man  whom  she  had  married ;  and  she  was  willing  to 
make  an  effort,  any  effort,  to  get  him  back.  Surely 
if  they  two  met  and  struggled  with  the  insidious 
enemy,  they  must  prevail.  Hitherto  she  had  listened 
to  her  husband's  pleas  and  had  supplied  him  with 
what  he  had  maintained  to  be  necessary,  had  spoilt 
him  a  little,  as  girl-wives,  ay,  and  their  elders,  will. 
But  there  should  be  no  more  of  it.  Digestion  or  in- 
digestion, Archie  must  go  without  his  palliative.  In 
their  house  alcohol  should  be  tabooed.  She  was  full 
of  the  horror  of  her  discovery,  the  horror  and  the 
shame.  Were  there  people  outside  the  four  dear 
walls  that  closing  about  a  little  space  had  made  it 
home — people  who  suspected,  who  whispered?  She 
remembered  the  scandal  at  Eastham  when  Mrs. 
Thompson,  the  doctor's  wife,  had  strayed  on  un- 
steady feet  into  the  post-office.  Did  people  know 
about  Archie?  She  hoped  not,  she  even  thought 
not,  for  if  she,  his  wife,  had  been  ignorant,  how 
could  those  who  stood  further  from  him  even  have 
suspected?  And  they  must  not  know.  She  and  he 
must  fight  this  weakness  and  bring  it  under  before 
ever  a  murmur  got  about.  Only  so  would  she  be 
able  to  hold  up  her  proud  young  head. 
This  weakness! 


248  TREASURE    TROVE 

At  last  she  was  face  to  face  with  the  fact  that 
Archie  was  not  the  man  she  had  believed  him.  She 
had  idealised  because  she  loved,  and  now  the  winds 
of  chance,  blowing  aside  an  edge  of  his  garment, 
had  shewn  the  feet  of  clay.  Mrs.  Smart  had  said 
that  men,  even  the  best  of  them,  were  unsatisfac- 
tory creatures,  had  warned  her  not  to  expect  too 
much  of  them,  not  to  judge.  They  had  their  good 
qualities,  their  special  qualities,  but  they  were 
neither  gods  nor  heroes.  "  Surely  I  have  not  ex- 
pected  too  much  of  Archie  ? "  said  poor,  disillu- 
sioned Eva,  and  sat  aghast  at  the  thought.  But  no, 
she  had  only  expected  of  him  the  clean  common- 
places of  everyday  middle-class  life,  and  those,  she 
was  sure,  she  would  continue  to  expect. 

The  baby  was  gradually  becoming  less  fretful,  a 
tiny  point  had  pressed  its  cruel  way  through  the 
pink  gum  and  the  inflammation  was  subsiding.  Eva 
warmed  the  Benger  and  fed  it  to  him  with  a  spoon. 
Her  child  had  never  had  a  bottle,  never  seen  one  of 
those  strange  "  comforters  "  which,  kind  only  to  be 
cruel,  are  said  to  have  so  ill  an  after-effect  upon 
mouth  and  dentition.  He  was  as  healthy  a  little  boy 
as  lived ;  and  Eva,  unlike  the  modern  mother,  would 
have  endured  any  discomfort  rather  than  have  jeop- 
ardised his  future  well-being. 

The  warm  food  had  a  soothing  quality,  and  the 
little  fellow  presently  dropped  off  to  sleep.  He  had 
outgrown  the  old  oak  cradle  and  had  lately  been 
promoted  to  an  iron  cot,  the  four  brass  knobs  of 


TREASURE    TROVE  249 

which,  to  his  infantile  mind,  were  certainly  the  most 
beautiful  and  desirable  things  in  the  world.  The 
night  was  wearing  away,  and  his  mother,  seeing 
that  his  slumber  was  that  of  a  very  tired  child,  laid 
him  down  on  his  own  bed  and  drew  the  small  blue 
eiderdown  high  up  about  him.  He  whimpered  once 
or  twice,  but  the  pain  was  gone  and  he  was  very 
sleepy,  and  in  a  few  minutes  she  saw  that  it  would 
be  safe  to  leave  him. 

It  is  seldom  that  we  come  to  a  crisis  in  life  with- 
out being  buoyed  up  by  a  strange  exultation.  On 
the  preceding  evening  Eva  had  been  tired  after  her 
day's  work.  If  her  child  had  slept  she  would  have 
done  the  same;  she  had  indeed  wondered  how  she 
was  to  keep  awake  through  the  long  hours  of  dark- 
ness. But  once  she  realised  her  husband's  condi- 
tion and  the  responsibility  which,  by  making  himself 
irresponsible,  he  had  thrust  upon  her — and  sleep  be- 
came an  impossibility.  She  was  widely,  alertly 
awake.  It  was  as  if  the  helm  of  a  ship,  when  ship- 
wreck was  imminent,  had  been  thrust  into  her  hand 
and  she  had  taken  hold. 

The  clock  on  the  mantel-shelf  suddenly  chimed 
the  hour,  and  Eva,  counting  the  strokes,  saw  that 
it  was  time  for  her  to  go  and  rouse  her  husband. 
Before  long  the  maids  would  be  stirring,  and  they 
must  not  know  how  or  where  he  had  spent  the  night. 
Fortunately  they  slept  in  two  big  attics  at  the  top 
of  the  house  and  would  not  be  likely  to  hear  any 
sound  that  might  be  made;  but  for  all  that,  she 


250  TREASURE   TROVE 

moved  cautiously,  turning  her  door-handle  with  care 
and  slipping  noiselessly  down  the  stairs. 

In  the  study  darkness  reigned,  for  the  last  ashes 
of  the  fire  were  fallen  together  and  heavy  curtains 
shut  out  the  grey  freshness  of  the  night.  Mrs. 
Flowerdew  went  up  to  them  and  pulled  them  apart. 
Outside  the  grass  was  silvered  with  dew  and  a 
breeze  was  blowing,  a  breeze  that  ruffled  the  top 
leaves  of  the  beech  and  pulled  at  the  yellowing  foli- 
age. The  air  of  the  room  was  heavily  reminiscent 
of  the  events  of  the  preceding  evening,  and  as  she 
stood  looking  out  upon  the  dim  world  the  girl  felt 
a  sudden  longing  for  clean  air,  and  unlatching  one 
of  the  windows,  pushed  it  open.  The  rush  of  the 
wind  was  invigorating  after  her  vigil,  and  she  stood 
leaning  out  and  drawing  deep  sweet  breaths,  until 
an  irritable  voice  from  the  other  end  of  the  room 
bade  her  come  in  and  have  done  with  such  foolish- 
ness. 

"  It's  as  cold  as  frogs,"  Mr.  Flowerdew  mur- 
mured, sitting  up  on  the  divan,  "  and  you  are  in 
your  dressing-gown." 

Eva  closed  the  window  and  came  slowly  across 
the  room  to  him.  The  time  had  come  for  an  ex- 
planation, and  she  had  thought  she  would  be  afraid 
to  ask  it  of  him.  But  she  was  not. 

"  You  were  drunk  last  night,"  she  said,  a  certain 
hard  quality  in  her  voice.  If  she  could,  she  meant 
to  shatter  his  self-esteem. 

The  man  upon  the  sofa  hunched  his  shoulders. 


TREASURE    TROVE  251 

He  was  suffering  from  the  effects  of  his  carouse, 
and  he  did  not  want  to  be  bothered.  "  What  of  it?  " 
he  said. 

"  You  do  not  take  whiskey  for  the  sake  of  your 
digestion,  you  take  it  because  you  like  it,  because 
you  like  to  drink." 

Her  husband  looked  at  her  in  amazement  and 
dawning  wrath.  How  dared  she  speak  to  him  like 
this?  What  did  she  mean  by  it?  "Pardon  me," 
he  said  sneeringly,  "  I  take  it  for  its  stimulating 
effects." 

His  wife  ignored  the  sneer  and  went  on  with  her 
accusation.  "  And  you  have  not  the  self-control  to 
take  only  what  would  be  stimulating." 

"  Oh,  don't  bother  yourself  with  my  concerns.  I 
do  as  I  please." 

"  And  you  please,"  she  dared  all  things  in  her 
last  words,  "  you  please  to  make  yourself  irrespon- 
sibly, swinishly  drunk." 

Her  words,  incisive,  hard,  unemotional,  fell  on 
him  like  blows  from  a  hammer.  His  head  was 
aching  and  he  felt  more  than  a  little  sick,  but  he 
was  furious.  She  was  bearding  him,  his  gentle,  his 
hitherto  obedient  wife!  He  rose  to  his  feet,  look- 
ing down  on  her  five  foot  eight  from  his  greater 
height,  but  it  did  not  seem  as  if  he  were  the  taller. 
"You  suggest,"  he  said  between  his  teeth,  "you 
suggest  that  I  am  a  drunkard  ?  " 

"  I  suggest  nothing.  Last  night  I  saw  you 
drunk." 


252  TREASURE    TROVE 

The  man  turned  aside.    "  Oh,  go  to  hell !  " 

But  Eva  stood  her  ground,  a  steadfast  figure  in 
the  loosely  falling  dark  red  gown.  "  I  have  been 
up  all  night,"  she  said,  "  thinking." 

Archie  moved  restlessly  about.  "  Does  that  jus- 
tify you,"  he  asked,  "  in  making  me  this  scene?  " 

"  I  do  not  need  any  justification.  I  have  been 
looking  back,  Archie,  back  to  the  time  before  we 
were  married.  And  I  see  that  you  took  too  much 
then,  that  you  have  always  taken  too  much." 

The  man  was  bent  upon  causing  her  to  lose  her 
temper.  "  It  was  a  pity  you  did  not  see  it  then.  If 
you  had,  we  might  have  been  spared  the  commission 
of  a  mistake." 

But  she  would  not  acknowledge  that  she  was  hurt. 
"  As  you  say,  it  was  a  pity,"  she  returned,  her 
steady  eyes  upon  his  face,  and  it  was  his  temper 
that  gave. 

"  You  dare  to  tell  me  that  you  regret  our  mar- 
riage ?  " 

Eva  almost  smiled.  How  childish  of  him  to  be 
playing  with  words,  scolding,  striving  to  irritate, 
when  they  were  talking  of  such  weighty  mat- 
ters. "  Who  would  not  regret  having  tied  herself 
for  life  to  a  man  that  drank  ? "  she  answered 
steadily. 

"  I  don't  drink,  damn  you !  "  stormed  Flowerdew 
suddenly.  "  And  if  I  did,  it's  none  of  your  busi- 
ness. I  shall  jolly  well  do  as  I  please.  What  do 
you  mean  by  taking  this  tone  to  me?  I  won't  be 


TREASURE    TROVE  253 

lectured  as  if  I  were  a  child."  He  walked  towards 
her,  his  face  very  pale,  his  mien  threatening-.  Be- 
tween them  stood  the  little  pedestal  table,  and  on 
it  was  a  heavy  cut-glass  bottle,  generally  used  to 
hold  whiskey.  Flowerdew's  hand  fell  on  this,  and 
he  raised  it  menacingly.  "  The  sooner  you  drop 
this  nonsense  the  better  for  you,  for  I  tell  you  I 
won't  stand  it."  He  added  one  or  two  furious  oaths. 
"  Get  out  of  this,"  he  cried,  "  or  I  won't  answer  for 
myself." 

Eva  knew  that  her  husband  was  a  man  of  ill- 
governed  passions,  and  she  believed  madness  and 
uncontrollable  anger  to  be  near  akin.  The  tragedies 
of  which  she  had  read  in  the  daily  papers,  the  cruel- 
ties, woundings,  murders,  seemed  not  so  much  due 
to  evil  intent  as  to  the  wild  impulses  of  a  tempes- 
tuous hour.  Until  this  moment,  though  she  had 
often  seen  Archie  out  of  humour,  she  had  never 
seen  him  in  a  rage,  and  to  her  he  looked  terrible. 
His  blue  eyes  sparkled  and  his  fair  brows  were 
drawn  together  above  them,  so  that  two  deep  per- 
pendicular lines  divided  his  forehead.  His  upper 
lip  was  drawn  back,  shewing  the  strong  and  white 
teeth,  and  his  head  and  arm  were  thrust  forward, 
menacing  her.  She  supposed  that  if  she  did  not 
yield  to  the  terror  possessing  her,  and  shrink  away, 
in  another  moment  the  heavy  bottle  would  come 
crashing  down  upon  her  skull.  But  something  in 
her  surged  up  from  the  depths ;  and  as  distinctly  as 
if  they  had  been  spoken,  two  sentences  formed 


254  TREASURE   TROVE 

themselves  before  her.  "  I  can  only  die  once !  "  and 
"  It  would  be  better  to  die  than  to  give  in." 

In  a  second  she  was  resolved.  She  did  not  flinch, 
but  with  an  effort  which  she  thought  must  be  vis- 
ible, so  great  was  it,  she  raised  her  eyes.  She  did 
not  speak,  but  as  her  eyes,  steadfast,  unyielding,  un- 
afraid, met  his,  her  husband's  hand  sank  to  his  side 
and  the  bottle  fell  out  of  it. 

"  Oh,  Eva,  Eva ! "  he  cried,  in  sudden  revulsion 
of  feeling,  "  save  me  from  myself!  "  and  in  a  mo- 
ment she  was  in  his  arms  and  the  tears  were  flow- 
ing. 

They  went  up  to  their  room  together,  and  Flow- 
erdew  made  full  confession.  He  did  not  want  to 
drink  and  he  would  give  it  up,  with  Eva's  help  he 
could  do  so  easily.  He  would  only  take  a  little 

"  None  at  all,"  said  Eva. 

"  Oh,  but  that's  nonsense.  A  man  must  have  an 
occasional  drink." 

"  No,"  and  she  shook  her  head. 

"  Oh,  come,  dear." 

But  his  prestige  had  been  irretrievably  damaged 
and  she  would  not  give  in.  "  I  did  not  see  it  at  the 
time,  indeed  I  never  realised  it  till  last  night,  but  it 
was  all  wrong,  everything,"  she  said.  "  You  took 
too  much  a  week,  too  much  a  day,  too  much  a  drink, 
and  now  we  must  make  a  clean  sweep,  we  must 
start  afresh." 

Flowerdew  held  out  his  arms  with  a  pathetic  ges- 
ture. "  You  love  me,  Eva  ?  " 


TREASURE   TROVE  255 

His  wife  responded  fervently.  "  Oh,  I  love  you,  I 
love  you  more  than  ever  I  did."  And  it  was  true. 
She  was  nearer  to  him,  she  understood  him  better, 
found  him  more  human,  and  if  there  were  pity 
mingled  with  the  love,  she  did  not  know  it. 

They  lay  talking  when  Eva,  at  least,  should  have 
been  asleep,  but  her  exaltation  had  not  quite  died 
away,  and  Archie,  now  that  the  flood-gates  were 
open,  had  many  things  to  tell.  For  the  first  time 
she  heard  of  early  struggles,  of  the  onset  of  the 
habit,  of  excuses  still  half  credited,  and  a  gradual 
hardening  of  moral  cuticle.  But  he  was  anxious  to 
reform,  really  anxious  to  climb  back  to  self-mastery, 
and  in  the  end  he  promised  all  that  she  asked.  He 
would  give  it  up,  would  drink  nothing  but  water, 
and  she  must  help  him.  And  Eva  agreed.  She 
did  not  yet  know  that  it  rests  with  the  wrong-doer 
whether  he  will  cease  to  do  evil  and  learn  to  do 
good,  that  he  and  he  only  can  work  out  his  salva- 
tion. 


CHAPTER   XV 

"  AND  how  is  Willy  ?  "  said  Eva,  putting  the  ques- 
tion perfunctorily,  for  of  course  he  was  well  and 
doing  well  and  could  have  no  history.  But  Mrs. 
Smart,  who  had  come  over  for  the  day,  thought  dif- 
ferently. 

Between  Morton  House  and  its  gate  was  a  well- 
gravelled  drive  some  two  hundred  yards  in  length 
which  was  shaded  from  the  sun  by  young  home- 
oaks.  Eva  and  her  mother,  pushing  the  baby-car- 
riage between  them,  were  strolling  up  and  down, 
talking  as  they  went,  and  beyond  the  shelter  of  the 
garden  the  March  wind  was  twisting  the  dust  of  the 
road  into  strange  spirals  and  founts. 

"  I  am  anxious  about  Willy,"  she  said. 

"  Anxious  ?  "  queried  Mrs.  Flowerdew.  During 
the  last  five  months  she  had  come  to  understand  the 
meaning  of  the  word,  to  understand  it  so  well  that 
she  felt  Mrs.  Smart  must  be  exaggerating.  Why 
should  she  be  anxious  about  Willy,  Willy  of  all 
people?  Now,  if  it  had  been  Archie 

"  It  is  all  very  well  for  a  man  to  take  an  interest 
in  his  business,  but  Willy  is  too  keen." 

Eva  almost  laughed.  "  He  wants  to  get  on,"  she 
said  cheerfully. 

"  But  he  doesn't  sleep  well  and  he  doesn't  eat 
256 


TREASURE   TROVE  257 

well;  he  does  nothing  but  study  the  business  col- 
umns of  the  papers  and  make  calculations  on  little 
pieces  of  paper." 

"  Persuade  him  to  take  a  good  holiday  this  year." 

"  It  sounds  as  if  he  were  overdoing  it,  doesn't  it, 
dearie  ?  " 

"  Well,  yes,  it  does,"  Eva  answered.  "  I  sup- 
pose he  gets  on  all  right  with  his  partner?  " 

"  I  don't  know.  Addison  hasn't  been  down 
lately ;  too  busy,  he  says.  A  new  company  is  being 
started  and  their  firm  has  to  do  with  it.  I  don't 
quite  understand  how  or  why  or  what  they  do,  but 
it  keeps  Willy  working  late  of  a  night." 

Eva  turned  the  baby-carriage.  "  Once  more  down 
the  drive  and  I  think  we  may  go  in,"  she  said. 
"  But  seriously,  Mother,  I  shouldn't  worry  about 
Willy.  It's  a  young  business  and  is  sure  to  have  its 
ups  and  downs,  and  no  doubt  he  gets  worried  at 
times.  I  should  like  to  see  the  man  who  doesn't." 

"  But  I  am  afraid,"  Mrs.  Smart  breathed  it  softly. 
"  I  am  afraid  he  is  speculating." 

"  Isn't  that  what  stockbrokers  do?  " 

"  Oh  no,  not  with  their  own  money." 

"  Only  with  other  people's  ?  I  see.  But  does  it 
matter  if  he  speculates?" 

"  He  might  lose  his  little  bit  of  capital." 

"  Well,  of  course." 

"  But  I  don't  think  that  is  all.  I  fancy  there  are 
penalties  attached  to  his  doing  so." 

"  Oh  really ;  who  attaches  them  ?  " 


258  TREASURE    TROVE 

Mrs.  Smart  did  not  know.  "  Oh — er — the  Stock 
Exchange,  I  suppose,"  she  said  vaguely. 

"  But  I  thought  that  was  a  place  ?  " 

"  Well,  yes ;  still  I  think  there's  someone  who 
makes  rules  that  all  these  people  have  to  keep ;  per- 
haps it's  a  committee." 

"  You  don't  know  much  about  it,  Mother,  do 
you?" 

"  Why  no,  dearie,  and  if  it  weren't  for  Willy 
being  a  stockbroker  I  shouldn't  want  to  know.  But 
I  can  see  that  things  are  going  badly,  or  at  least  not 
smoothly  with  the  lad,  and  it  makes  me  wonder 
whether  I  did  well  in  starting  him  on  his  own.  He 
was  young  to  have  so  much  responsibility." 

Eva  sighed.  What  a  joy-killer  was  this  same 
responsibility.  "  You  started  him  and  you  started 
us,"  she  said  slowly.  "  It  is  two  years  ago  last 
Christmas,  and  you  gave  us  each  the  same  sum 
of  money." 

"  No  dearie,  I  gave  him  a  little  more,  the  little 
that  made  him  a  stockbroker." 

"  Ah  well,  it  was  practically  the  same.  Do  you 
remember,  Mother,  how  I  badgered  you  to  let  me 
have  it  and  all  you  said  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  murmured  Mrs.  Smart.  She  was  listen- 
ing to  the  crunching  sound  of  their  feet  upon  the 
gravel  and  enjoying  the  sunshine  and  the  keen  air. 
"  I  did  not  think  you  were  wise." 

"  And  I  wasn't." 

"  Well,  well,  experience  teaches." 


TREASURE    TROVE  259 

Eva  sighed  again.  "  It's  a  hard  school,"  she  said 
ruefully.  "  Why  should  it  be  necessary  for  people 
to  go  through  such  a  lot,  just  in  order  to  get  a  little 
wisdom?  " 

But  Mrs.  Smart  was  only  interested  in  the  con- 
crete. 

"  Do  you  wish  I  hadn't  given  it  to  you  ?  "  she 
asked. 

"  I  think  I  do." 

"Why  dearie?" 

"  Well,"  said  her  daughter  slowly,  "  you  see  this 
is  a  big  undertaking,  and  it  suffers  from  our  want 
of  capital,  and  we  suffer,  too.  We  never  know  what 
a  day  may  bring  forth,  and  oh  Mother,  the  con- 
stant anxiety ! " 

"  But  if  I  hadn't  helped  you " 

"  That's  just  it,  and  I  wouldn't  be  without  Archie 
for  the  world.  But  it's  so  wearing  to  be  for  ever 
counting  your  pennies  and  trying  to  keep  up  ap- 
pearances, and  I  get  tired  of  it.  You  see,  Mother, 
I'm  not  so  very  old,  and  I  look  at  the  other  girls, 
all  so  gay  and  careless,  and  then  I  feel  I  could  do 
without  this  bothering  old  school." 

"  But  when  you  wrote  last  you  told  me  matters 
were  improving." 

"  They've  got  to  improve  such  a  very  long  way 
before  it  makes  any  difference." 

"And  how's  Archie?" 

"  Since  early  last  October,"  said  his  wife,  a 
thankful  note  in  her  voice,  "  he  has  been  much 


2<5o  TREASURE    TROVE 

better,  much  stronger,  a  different  man.  He  doesn't 
sleep  very  well  but  that's  nothing." 

"Doesn't  sleep  well?" 

"  Oh,  I  don't  think  his  not  sleeping  amounts  to 
much.  But  he  has  had  a  bed  put  in  his  dressing- 
room,  and  when  he  fancies  he's  going  to  have  a  bad 
night  he  spends  it  there.  The  wall  is  not  very  thick, 
and  I  often  hear  him  snoring,  so  I  don't  fancy  he  is 
as  bad  as  he  thinks." 

"  Any  new  boys  ?  " 

"  We've  four  coming  next  term.  Archie  put  ad- 
vertisements in  the  Irish  papers,  and  the  result  has 
been  most  encouraging.  He  is  taking  these  boys  at 
a  reduced  rate  because  he  thinks  they  will  bring 
others.  And  already  we've  had  inquiries  from  one 
or  two  more." 

"  That  looks  well." 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  Eva  impatiently,  "  I  suppose  I 
ought  not  to  grumble.  Archie  says  we've  turned 
the  corner,  and  perhaps  we  have,  but  to-day,  for  no 
reason  at  all,  I'm  feeling  depressed."  She  turned 
the  baby-carriage  out  of  the  drive  and  brought  it 
across  the  open  space  of  gravel  in  front  of  the 
porch.  Her  mother  followed  more  slowly,  and  Mrs. 
Flowerdew,  glancing  back  to  speak  to  her,  per- 
ceived that  a  cab  was  stopping  at  the  gate.  "  Vis- 
itors !  "  she  exclaimed.  "  And  as  Archie  is  at  the 
football  match,  I  shall  have  them  all  to  myself. 
What  a  good  thing !  "  And  she  wheeled  Jocelyn 
quickly  into  the  square  tesselated  hall. 


TREASURE   TROVE  261 

"  You  will  see  them  ?  "  inquired  Mrs.  Smart.  She 
was  there  on  such  a  short  visit  that  she  grudged 
these  strangers  any  of  her  daughter's  attention. 

"  I  must ;  you  see  it  might  be  a  parent." 

Themselves  concealed  by  the  darkness  of  the  hall, 
they  paused  to  watch  the  four-wheeler  disgorge  its 
load.  A  slim  man  in  blue  serge,  with  a  check  cap 
and  marked  features,  a  man  with  an  indefinable  air 
of  horsiness  about  him,  had  stepped  out,  followed  by 
a  broad  personage  in  tweeds  and  a  gay  necktie,  and 
these  two  were  assisting  a  third. 

"  Why,"  said  Mrs.  Smart  innocently,  "  it's  some- 
body who  is  ill,  and  he  is  in  grey.  Archie  had 
on  a  grey  suit.  There  must  have  been  an  acci- 
dent." 

Eva  had  turned  white.  She  remembered  and  she 
feared.  An  accident?  If  it  were  only  that!  But 
whatever  it  was,  she  must  be  ready.  She  rang  a 
little  bell  that  stood  on  the  table  of  the  hat-rack, 
and  handed  Jocelyn  to  the  first  servant  who  came. 
"  Take  him  to  the  nursery,"  she  said  quietly,  "  and 
take  him  up  the  back  staircase." 

When  she  rejoined  her  mother,  the  two  men,  sup- 
porting the  third  between  them,  were  walking  slowly 
towards  her  up  the  drive. 

"  It  is  Archie,"  said  Mrs.  Smart.  "  He  must 
have  hurt  himself." 

Eva  was  strangely  calm,  "  He  wasn't  playing  in 
the  match,"  she  said.  "  He — he  may  not  be  hurt." 
And  suspicions  which  had  haunted  her  for  months, 


262  TREASURE    TROVE 

which  she  had  put  aside  as  unworthy  of  them  both, 
crowded  back  upon  her.  She  stared  out  at  the 
approaching  group,  the  good-natured  helpers  and 
that  shambling  figure  in  the  middle,  and  her  face 
hardened.  With  our  penny,  all  that  we  have,  we 
start  for  the  world's  market,  and  once  arrived, 
change  it  sooner  or  later  for  some  package  out  of 
the  lucky  tub.  Eva  had  spent  her  penny,  had  drawn 
her  prize,  and  there  was  nothing  more  for  her.  She 
stepped  past  her  mother,  and  the  sunlight  fell 
through  the  glass  of  the  little  porch,  illuminating 
her  tall  figure  and  warming  her.  But  for  all  that, 
she  shivered,  as  if  the  winds  blowing  coldly  through 
shattered,  roofless  walls  were  blowing  upon  her. 
The  prize  that  she  had  drawn ! 

By  this  time  the  strangers  had  brought  their  com- 
panion, who  at  intervals  reiterated  a  desire  for  sleep, 
as  far  as  the  gravel  sweep.  "  Hold  up,  old  'un," 
one  of  them  said  with  a  sort  of  genial  roughness, 
"you're  nearly  there,  and  then  you  can  sleep  till 
all's  blue."  And  catching  sight  of  Mrs.  Flowerdew 
in  the  porch,  he  managed,  while  supporting  her  hus- 
band with  one  hand,  to  pull  off  with  the  other  the 
round  hard  hat  which  he  wore. 

"  Sorry  ma'am,"  he  said  with  a  comfortable 
smile.  He,  Craggs,  was  the  landlord  of  a  small 
public  house  not  many  streets  away,  and  he  knew 
Mrs.  Flowerdew  by  sight.  "  Sorry,  ma'am,  but 
your  gentleman's  a  bit  done  up  like." 

"  Archie !  "  cried  Eva,  as  if  they  two  were  alone. 


TREASURE    TROVE  263 

For  the  moment,  in  the  tumult  of  her  thoughts,  she 
had  forgotten  his  supporters.  "  Oh  Archie !  " 

"  Damn  you,"  said  her  husband  pleasantly.  He 
was  helplessly  drunk,  too  drunk  to  know  what  he 
was  saying.  "  Want  to  go  'sleep,"  he  murmured. 

"  If  we  might  take  him  up  to  his  room  ?  "  said 
the  little  publican.  He  had  known  for  some  time 
that  the  schoolmaster  was  fond  of  his  glass,  and  he 
thought  Mrs.  Flowerdew's  manifest  distress  rather 
foolish.  She  must  have  known  that  he  drank. 

Eva  stepped  back.  "How  did  it  happen?"  she 
asked,  and  Craggs  paused  to  explain. 

"  Well,  you  see,  it  was  this  way,"  he  said,  prop- 
ping Flowerdew  against  his  shoulder.  "  Our  side 
won,  won  easy,  simply  walked  over  them  other 
chaps,  and  he'd  been  liquoring  a  bit  as  it  was.  When 
he  come  to  see  how  things  was  going,  well,  there 
was  no  holding  of  him.  Some  is  like  that.  They 
go  steady  for  a  bit,  and  then  all  of  a  sudden  they 
drink  theirselves  blind." 

"  But  my  husband  hasn't  taken  anything  for 
months,  he  gave  it  up  last — last  October." 

A  slow  grin  crept  over  the  fat  red  face,  curling 
up  the  long  lips  and  twinkling  in  the  little  eyes.  So 
he  had  kept  it  dark! 

"  Told  you  that,  did  he,  ma'am  ?  Well,  I  never !  " 
He  reflected,  hitching  Flowerdew  into  a  more  stable 
position,  and  finally  shook  his  head.  "  A  drop  now 
and  again's  good  for  a  chap,"  he  said  at  last,  "  but 
he  ought  to  know  when  he's  had  enough.  I've  'ad 


264  TREASURE    TROVE 

experience,  and  I  should  say  as  your  good  gentle- 
man has  been  on  the  drink  for  some  time  and  that 
this  is  the  finish.  Eh  Wilson?"  and  he  looked 
across  at  his  friend. 

"  Seems  like  it,"  assented  Wilson,  who,  having 
been  a  groom  for  many  years,  had  learnt  to  be 
chary  of  his  words.  He  stood  in  this  strange  hall 
as  he  would  have  in  his  master's,  his  eyes  straight 
before  him,  his  hands  at  his  side.  He  was  an  ex- 
cellent servant. 

Mrs.  Flowerdew  had  not  time  to  think.  She  leant 
towards  her  husband,  speaking  very  distinctly  and 
authoritatively.  "  Try  and  walk  upstairs,  Archie," 
she  said. 

Archie  opened  his  eyes.  "  Tired ! "  he  said. 
"  Long  way  to  the  field.  Hot  sun." 

"  I  really  don't  think  as  he  can  do  it,  ma'am," 
interposed  Craggs,  "  but  if  you  was  just  to  go  be- 
fore and  shew  us  the  way  we'd  make  nothing  of 
carrying  him,  me  and  Wilson." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  like  to  trouble  you." 

"  No  trouble  ma'am,"  said  the  polite  Wilson. 

Flowerdew  was  laid  on  the  sofa  at  the  foot  of 
the  big  double  bed  in  his  wife's  room,  and  after  she 
had  tipped  and  dismissed  the  two  men,  Eva  turned 
to  her  unhappy  mother. 

"  Well,  it  has  happened,"  she  said,  and  Mrs. 
Smart  knew  that  consciously  or  unconsciously  the 
girl  had  been  expecting  something  of  the  sort.  The 
knowledge  of  what  her  child  had  been  silently  en- 


TREASURE    TROVE  265 

during  swept  over  her  and  she  would  have  folded 
the  girl  in  a  motherly  embrace.  But  Eva  shook  her 
head.  "  I  couldn't  stand  it,"  she  said,  and  then 
looked  at  her  mother  wistfully.  "  Oh,  it  would  be 
heavenly  just  to  give  in  and  cry  about  it,"  she  said, 
"  but  I  mustn't — not  yet.  You  see,  everything  de- 
pends upon  me." 

Though  her  face  was  haggard  with  anxiety,  she 
looked  very  young,  and  Mrs.  Smart's  heart  ached 
for  her.  To  stand  aside,  to  watch  a  child  suffer  and 
to  be  unable  to  help,  can  anything  bring  home  to 
the  middle-aged  more  certainly  the  fact  that  they 
have  no  part  in  the  present?  Their  work  is  done, 
and  whether  or  no  their  strength  is  gone  from  them, 
they  have  only  to  fold  their  hands  and  wait  for  the 
inevitable. 

"  I — I  shall  not  go  home  till  the  last  train  to- 
night," Mrs.  Smart  said,  in  the  vague  hope  that 
presently  she  might  be  of  some  use. 

"  I  shall  like  to  feel  that  you  are  here,"  Eva  said, 
rewarding  her,  "  and  after  all — yes,  in  spite  of 
everything,  I — I'm  glad  you  know."  She  went  into 
the  room  where  her  husband  lay  and  shut  the  door 
upon  herself  and  him. 

And  Mrs.  Smart  was  left  alone — outside. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

AN  hour  or  so  later  that  afternoon,  a  sharp  ring 
at  the  front  door  roused  Eva  out  of  the  stupor  of 
shame,  disillusionment  and  grief  into  which  she  had 
fallen.  For  a  moment  she  thought  of  denying  her- 
self. She  could  not  face  the  pity,  the  condemnation, 
the  pharasaical  glance,  the  curiosity.  She  had  been 
sitting  by  the  window,  her  unseeing  eyes  upon  the 
leafless  beech ;  and  though  her  lids  were  red,  it  was 
with  the  tears  which  had  not  fallen.  There  is  a 
depth  of  depression,  a  blackness  of  outlook,  that 
robs  the  soul  of  all  vitality,  and  Eva,  her  head  upon 
her  hand,  her  figure  drooping  forward,  was  experi- 
encing this  bitter  languor.  She  did  not  weep,  she 
did  not  complain,  she  hardly  suffered ;  but  it  seemed 
to  her  that  the  worst  had  happened,  and  that  she 
might  let  go. 

When  that  insistent  tinkle  sounded  through  the 
house  she  stayed  where  she  was.  Nothing  that 
could  happen  would  make  matters  worse  than  they 
already  were,  nor  could  anybody  rivet  for  her  that 
golden  bowl  of  her  trust  which  had  been  broken. 
She  might  as  well  stay  on  in  the  quiet  and  seclusion 
of  her  room. 

But  the  caller  was  not  one  to  be  denied,  and 
presently  the  parlour-maid  was  knocking  at  her 
door. 

266 


TREASURE   TROVE  267 

"Mr.  Stilton  to  see  Master." 

Mr.  Stilton  was  the  father  of  a  present  and  of  a 
prospective  pupil,  and  at  the  mention  of  his  name  a 
new  fear  shot  into  Eva's  heart.  She  had  realised 
the  disgrace,  but  hardly  what  the  consequence  of  it 
would  be,  and  she  saw  at  once  that  this  man's  com- 
ing portended  trouble.  It  was  possible,  it  was  even 
probable,  that  he  had  been  at  the  Football  Match; 
and  if  so,  he  would  not  have  had  to  wait  until  gos- 
sip brought  the  tale  of  Flowerdew's  misconduct  to 
his  ears.  And  if  he  knew? 

Why,  if  he  knew,  he  would  of  course  remove  his 
son  and  send  both  to  some  other  school;  and  not 
only  he,  but  all  the  fathers  who  lived  in  the  imme- 
diate neighbourhood  would  take  their  boys  away. 
An  open  scandal  may  eventually  be  lived  down,  it 
cannot  be  fought;  and  Eva  realised  she  was  face 
to  face  not  only  with  disgrace,  but  also  with  beg- 
gary. The  stimulus  of  a  demand  upon  her,  a  de- 
mand which  must  be  met,  was  what  she  had  been 
needing,  and  she  bade  the  girl  shew  Mr.  Stilton 
into  the  drawing-room.  Hitherto  she  had  felt  as  if 
her  life  were  in  ruins  about  her  feet,  now  she  was 
as  one  strenuously  holding  on  to  what  was  hers  in 
spite  of  wind  and  weather. 

Mr.  Henry  Stilton  was  a  well-to-do  merchant 
with  a  sense  of  duty,  and  it  was  that  which  had 
brought  him  to  Morton  House  on  his  way  home 
from  the  football  field.  Generally  an  easy  man,  he 
had  been  on  friendly  terms  with  his  son's  school- 


268  TREASURE   TROVE 

master,  and  had  been  genuinely  shocked  to  see  Flow- 
erdew  unmistakably  the  worse  for  drink.  Stilton 
had  not  that  fellow-feeling  for  a  fellow-sinner  which 
makes  men  more  tolerant  to  men  than  women  are  to 
women,  for  he  prided  himself  on  his  abstemious- 
ness ;  and  his  dismay  at  the  sight  of  a  lurching,  inco- 
herent Flowerdew  was  more  than  merely  tinctured 
with  indignation.  What  was  the  fellow  thinking 
about  ?  Did  he  imagine  that  men  like  himself  would 
send  their  sons  to  be  educated  by  anyone  with  so 
little  decency  and  sense  of  what  was  fitting?  Drunk 
on  the  football  field!  He  would  certainly  take  his 
boy  away ;  in  fact,  the  sooner  he  saw  Flowerdew  on 
the  subject  the  better,  and  there  is  no  time  like  the 
present. 

When  Eva  entered  the  long,  low  drawing-room, 
with  its  panelled  walls  and  definite  colouring,  she 
found  her  antagonist  posed  on  the  Turkey  rug  be- 
fore the  fire.  From  his  face  she  gathered  at  once 
that  she  was  the  last  person  he  had  expected  to  see, 
and  that  was  encouraging.  Mr.  Stilton,  having  a 
chivalrous  contempt  for  women,  disliked  approach- 
ing them  on  any  but  the  domestic  side,  and  having 
called  to  speak  with  Flowerdew,  was  annoyed  at 
having  to  meet  the  man's  young  wife.  He  drew 
his  heavy  black  brows  together  into  a  knot  over 
his  prominent  nose.  "  I  wanted  to  see  your  hus- 
band," he  began  ungraciously. 

Eva  took  her  bull  by  the  horns.  "  I  know,"  she 
said,  looking  him  straight  in  the  face,  "but  he  is 


TREASURE    TROVE  269 

not  in  a  condition  to  see  you."  She  pulled  a  chair 
forward  for  herself  and  motioned  him  to  another, 
but  Mr.  Stilton  was  careful  to  choose  his  own,  for 
it  would  not  do  to  be  too  comfortable.  "  And  I 
know,"  continued  Eva  steadily,  "  that  you  have 
come  to  take  Harry  away  and  to  say  that  Tom  shall 
not  come  to  us  after  Easter,  as  arranged."  She 
was  sitting  where  the  light  could  fall  sideways  upon 
her  face,  and  its  anxiety  and  distress  were  only  too 
apparent.  The  man  who  was  facing  her,  and  who 
at  bottom  was  not  more  hard  than  the  rest  of  us, 
began  to  look  as  uncomfortable  as  the  chair  he  had 
chosen.  He  wished,  now  that  it  was  too  late,  that 
he  had  not  come,  that  he  had  written.  Why  should 
he  have  allowed  his  righteous  indignation  to  get  the 
better  of  him,  to  wing  his  middle-aged  feet  and 
bring  him  out  on  such  an  errand? 

"  And  as  soon  as  you  are  gone,"  continued  Eva, 
"  Mr.  Gilbert  Smith  will  come,  and  then  Dr.  Ack- 
royd,  and  then  the  Pennimans — oh,  and  all  the 
others." 

"  Well,  but  you  know,"  expostulated  Stilton  in 
his  jerky  manner,  "  it's  the  sort  of  thing  nobody 
could  stand.  Think  of  the  publicity  of  it — why,  it 
will  be  all  over  the  place ! "  He  warmed  to  his 
work.  "  And  a  schoolmaster  is  like  a  clergyman, 
he's  different  from  other  men,  he  is  expected  to  set 
an  example.  One  must  think  of  the  children." 

"  I  know,"  said  Mrs.  Flowerdew  simply.  "  I 
have  a  child." 


270  TREASURE    TROVE 

For  a  moment  Stilton  saw  what  his  action  and 
that  of  the  other  men  who  would  withdraw  their 
boys  from  the  care  of  this  undeserving  schoolmaster 
must  entail  upon  her  and  her  child.  But  the  vision 
was  one  he  did  not  wish  to  contemplate. 

"  My  dear  young  lady,"  he  said,  touched  a  little 
in  spite  of  that  militant  virtue  of  his,  "  if  it  wasn't 
that  it  might  happen  again,  any  day,  to-morrow! 
I'm  sorry  about  it,  no  one  could  be  more  so.  I 
should  never  have  thought  it  of  your  husband,  so 
clever,  and  the  boy  getting  on  so  well,  too;  we 
were  perfectly  satisfied,  Mrs.  Stilton  and  I."  He 
hesitated,  and  then  began  to  coat  his  pill  with  sugar. 
"  We  all  know  how  kind  you've  been  to  the  boys, 
quite  motherly;  in  fact,  it  distresses  me  to  think  I 
am  putting  you  about  in  any  way,  and  Mrs.  Stilton 
will  feel  the  same." 

It  was  even  possible  that  his  comfortable  help- 
mate might  think  he  had  acted  rashly.  She  liked 
Mrs.  Flowerdew,  and  being  the  mother  of  many 
little  children,  her  heart  had  been  kept  large  as  well 
as  warm.  But  her  husband  would  do  at  any  cost 
what  he  conceived  to  be  his  duty,  and  his  hostess, 
seeing  this,  realised  that  if  she  wished  to  turn  the 
interview  to  good  account,  she  must  meet  him  with 
a  commonsense  equal  to  his  own.  She  leant  for- 
ward in  her  chair. 

"  Mr.  Stilton,"  she  said  earnestly,  "  of  course 
you  want  to  do  what  is  best  for  your  boys,  but  I 
think  you  also  want  to  be  kind  to  us — to  me — and 


TREASURE   TROVE  271 

I  see  a  way  in  which  you  can  give  us  a  chance.  I 
see — you  have  shewn  me — that  after  what  has  hap- 
pened, my  husband  cannot  hope  to  remain  here." 
Mr.  Stilton  gave  a  sigh  of  relief.  What  a  sensible 
young  woman.  He  need  no  longer  dread  his  next 
interview  with  his  wife. 

"  Well,  hardly,"  he  said: 

"  But  we  might  sell  the  school  to  somebody  else, 
and  so  not  lose  all  the  money  we  have  put  into  it. 
You  say  yourself  it  is  a  good  school."  She  thought 
bitterly  that  it  was  so  because  Archie  was  a  fine 
teacher  and  organiser. 

"  Yes,"  said  Stilton,  "  I  couldn't  ask  for  a  better. 
It's  thoroughly  up  to  date." 

"  If,"  pursued  Mrs.  Flowerdew,  "  you  and  all 
the  others  take  your  children  away,  we  shall  not  be 
able  to  sell  the  school."  She  lifted  her  shoulders 
expressively.  "Of  course  not — who  would  buy? 
But  if  you  were  willing  to  leave  them  with  whoever 
comes  in  our  place,"  her  voice  faltered  for  a  mo- 
ment, "  to  leave  them  until  you  had  given  him  a 
fair  trial,  it  would  make  all  the  difference  to  us,  all 
the  difference  in  the  world." 

In  talking  it  over  afterwards  with  his  wife,  Mr. 
Stilton  gave  Eva  her  fair  meed  of  admiration. 
"  The  spunky  little  woman,"  he  said,  "  she  quite  got 
round  me."  At  the  time,  however,  he  kept  his  ad- 
miration within  bounds,  and  only  shifted  from  his 
carved  German  chair  to  one  which  his  hostess  had 
covered  and  padded  with  her  own  capable  hands. 


272  TREASURE   TROVE 

"  There's  something  in  what  you  say,"  he  re- 
marked after  a  pause  of  some  duration,  during 
which  he  had  carefully  considered  her  proposition. 
If  it  did  not  militate  against  either  his  boys'  pros- 
pects or  his  own  conscience,  he  would  be  glad  to 
oblige  her,  and  this  chair  was  certainly  more  com- 
fortable than  the  other  had  been.  He  leant  back, 
his  mind  as  well  as  his  body  relaxing.  "  Well,"  he 
said,  "  I'll  see  what  the  other  men  say — it's  our 
bridge  evening  to-night,  and  the  Pennimans  won't 
be  more  than  a  step  out  of  my  way."  Which,  being 
interpreted,  meant  that  as  the  Pennimans  did  not 
play  cards,  he  would  call  on  them  and  beg  them  to 
hold  their  hands,  while  as  far  as  Dr.  Ackroyd  and 
Mr.  Gilbert  Smith  and  the  others  were  concerned, 
he  would  see  them  that  evening  and  they  could  then 
talk  it  over.  A  little  briskness  came  into  his  man- 
ner, for  it  must  be  admitted  that  Mr.  Stilton  liked 
to  play  a  part  in  the  drama  of  life,  and  he  could  be, 
because  of  that  very  weakness,  an  efficient  friend. 
"  Well  then,  Mrs.  Flowerdew,"  he  said,  getting  up 
again,  "  I  may  take  it  from  you  that  after  Easter 
the  school  will  be  in  different  hands  ?  " 

"  You  may  take  it  from  me,"  said  poor  Eva,  with 
the  recollection  of  all  their  labour  and  self-denial  in 
her  mind.  How  proud  they  had  been  of  it,  their 
own  school,  how  willing  to  work  for  it,  how  eagerly 
they  had  discussed  every  change,  every  improve- 
ment! While  it  was  safely  theirs  it  had  seemed  a 
burden ;  now  that  it  must  be  given  up,  she  knew  it 


TREASURE    TROVE  273 

for  a  treasure.  She  had  murmured  against  it  to 
her  mother,  now  she  saw  it  as  a  mine  which  they 
had  discovered,  but  out  of  which  other  men  were  to 
lift  the  gold. 

Mr.  Stilton  offered  her  his  broad,  rather  damp 
hand.  "  I  am  sure,"  he  said  paternally,  "  that  we 
shall  all  of  us  be  glad  to  meet  you  in  any  way  that 
we  can."  And  he  went  away  with  a  little  glow  at 
his  heart.  He  was  doing  a  kind  action,  he  would 
make  others  join  with  him,  and,  last  but  not  least, 
he  knew  that  he  would  have  won  the  approval  of 
his  stout  and  comfortable  wife.  He  went  home, 
thinking  all  the  way  of  that  little  pat  upon  the  back 
which  he  had  earned  and  was  about  to  receive. 

After  she  had  seen  him  out,  Eva  went  in  search 
of  her  mother.  There  was  so  much  to  think  of,  so 
much  to  be  done,  that  she  almost  wished  Mrs.  Smart 
had  gone  back  to  Eastham ;  but  when  she  found  her, 
sitting  on  a  cane  chair  in  her  bedroom,  with  those 
capable  hands  miserably  idle  in  her  lap,  she  wished, 
not  that  she  had  gone  back,  but  that  she  had  never 
come.  Why  should  her  mother  be  involved  in  this 
trouble,  which  was  not  her  trouble,  but  which,  be- 
cause she  knew  of  it,  must  so  sadly  affect  her  pleas- 
ant, everyday  complacency.  Eva  was  not  more  self- 
absorbed  than  the  majority  of  young  people,  and  she 
was  able  to  spare  a  thought  from  her  own  worries 
to  this  grief  of  her  mother's,  the  root  of  which  lay 
in  her  inability  to  help.  As  time  had  passed  and 
the  school  had  grown  more  prosperous,  Mrs.  Smart 


274  TREASURE   TROVE 

had  allowed  herself  to  take  a  little  pride  in  Eva's 
position.  She  was  not  a  pretentious  woman,  but  it 
was  pleasant  to  feel  that  the  girl  had  done  well  for 
herself ;  and  that  everything,  the  school  and  the  baby 
and  the  young  husband,  were  satisfactory.  She  had 
gone  about  her  daily  work  with  the  feeling  that 
Eva  at  least  had  builded  her  house  of  life  above 
the  reach  of  misfortune's  tides,  and  when  she 
thought  of  her  she  had  smiled. 

The  interview  with  Mr.  Stilton  had  been  rather 
a  strain  upon  nerves  already  jangled,  and  Eva  sank 
into  the  basket  chair  by  Mrs.  Smart's  window  as  if 
she  never  meant  to  leave  it  again.  "  Oh  Mother!  " 
she  said.  The  time  had  come  to  make  confession, 
to  admit  all  that  that  mother  guessed,  and  to  tell 
her  the  point  to  which  she  had  been  forced  by  her 
visitor  of  that  afternoon. 

When  she  had  finished,  the  two  unhappy  women 
sat  staring  before  them,  but  Eva's  cold  hand  was 
clasped  in  her  mother's,  and  Mrs.  Smart  felt  that 
she  was  no  longer — outside! 

"  If  I  had  only  taken  your  advice  in  the  begin- 
ning," sighed  Eva.  Her  faith  in  her  young  hus- 
band had  been  of  rainbow  dust,  once  it  had  spanned 
the  heavens,  now  it  was  dissolved  in  tears.  "  Oh 
that  unlucky,  that  unlucky  money." 

"Unlucky?"  queried  Mrs.  Smart,  a  startled  note 
in  her  voice. 

"  I  could  almost  wish,"  said  the  girl  despondently, 
"  that  Granny  had  not  left  it  you." 


TREASURE   TROVE  275 

And  Mrs.  Smart  remembered,  what  during  the 
last  two  years  she  had  almost  forgotten,  that  it  had 
not  been  her  mother's,  that  it  was  treasure  trove, 
all  that  remained  to  her  of  the  jewels  which  she 
had  found.  "  Finding  is  keeping,"  Mrs.  Smart 
had  told  herself  and  she  murmured  it  again,  but  to 
a  heart  grown  suddenly  uneasy. 

"But  why,  Eva?"  " 

"  I  suppose  it's  silly  to  say  so,  but  it  really  seems 
as  if  all  the  trouble  had  sprung  from  it.  If  we 
couldn't  have  had  the  two  thousand  pounds,  we 
must  have  begun  in  a  small  way,  and  then  Archie 
could  not  have  afforded  the — the  luxuries  which 
have  brought  us  to  this.  There  is  a  saying  about 
being  '  too  big  for  your  boots '  and  I'm  afraid  it 
applies  to  us." 

"  But,"  said  Mrs.  Smart  anxiously,  "  your  hus- 
band was  used  to  having  things  very  nice.  He  had 
been  to  college  you  know,  and  had  been  a  master  in 
big  schools." 

"  His  father  was  a  bank  manager  Mother,  he 
told  me  so ;  and  if  he  hadn't  taken  all  those  scholar- 
ships he  would  never  have  gone  to  Oxford.  It  was 
travelling  with  Lord  Albert  Gaveston  that  gave 
him  his  large  ideas." 

Mrs.  Smart  sighed,  admitting  the  truth  of  her 
daughter's  words.  "  Well,  well,"  she  said,  "  per- 
haps it  wasn't  wholly  on  Archie's  account  that  I 
let  you  have  the  money." 

"  I  thought  not,"  said  Eva. 


276  TREASURE   TROVE 

"  I  did  want  you  to  have  a  nice  home  and  a  good 
position." 

"  Ah  Mother  dear,  yes,  and  so  you  played  Provi- 
dence." She  shook  her  head.  "  It  doesn't  seem  to 
be  allowed  does  it  ?  One  has  to  be  one's  own  Provi- 
dence. It's  a  queer  thing,  but  one  is  not  punished 
for  one's  sins  half  as  much  as  one  is  for  one's  errors 
of  judgment.  Perhaps  the  unwritten  law  '  Don't 
be  foolish '  is  more  important  than  all  the  other 
commandments  put  together.  I  wonder." 

But  Mrs.  Smart  never  wondered.  "  An  error  of 
judgment,"  she  said  thoughtfully,  "  yes,  perhaps  it 
was." 

"  And,"  continued  Eva,  harping  upon  a  previous 
thought,  "  if  Granny  had  not  left  you  that  unlucky 
money,  it  was  an  error  that  could  not  have  been 
committed." 

"  No,"  said  her  mother  rather  dismally.  Had 
the  money  really  brought  ill-luck?  But  how  ab- 
surd !  She  had  had  a  perfect  right  to  it.  She  had 
found  it  in  her  own  house,  on  her  own  mantel-shelf. 
Ill-gotten  gains?  What  nonsense!  She  had  a 
sturdy  faith  in  her  own  righteousness  and  Eva's 
remarks,  if  they  disturbed  it  for  a  moment,  could 
not  do  more  than  that.  "  I  meant  well,"  she  said, 
and  took  comfort  from  the  thought. 

"  It  does  not  seem  to  me,"  said  the  daughter, 
"  that  intentions  count." 

Mrs.  Smart  turned  a  shocked  face  upon  her.  "  Oh 
Eva,"  she  said,  "  intentions  are  everything."  She 


TREASURE   TROVE  277 

had  taken  the  jewels  in  order  to  help  her  children 
on  in  the  world.  She  had  been  entirely  well-mean- 
ing— but  there,  it  was  all  nonsense !  Eva  was  wor- 
ried and  did  not  know  what  she  was  saying.  But 
though  she  pooh-poohed  the  idea  she  was  at  once 
too  superstitious  and  too  careful  to  forget  it.  A 
stone  had  been  dropped  into  the  clear  shallows  of 
her  mind,  a  stone  of  a  different  colour  to  the  sur- 
rounding sand  and  on  her  way  home  that  evening 
she  thought  of  it  more  than  once. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  first  awakening  of  a  man  after  he  has  irre- 
trievably disgraced  himself,  his  realisation  of  the 
ruin  which  by  weakness  or  deliberate  wrong-doing 
he  has  brought  upon  himself  and  his  family  is  of  a 
sufficient  poignancy.  When  Archibald  Flowerdew 
woke  unrefreshed  out  of  the  heavy  sleep  in  which 
he  had  lain  all  night,  it  was  yet  early  and  he  was 
only  conscious  of  a  throbbing  in  his  head.  Light, 
the  dim  light  of  a  new  day,  was  filtering  through 
the  green  Venetians  and  though  he  had  no  recol- 
lection of  how  he  had  got  there,  he  was  in  his  bed. 
He  was  very  uncomfortable,  his  tongue  was  dry,  his 
head  ached  and  he  felt  more  than  a  little  sick.  Turn- 
ing, he  saw  Eva's  dark  head  on  the  adjacent 
pillow  and  became  aware  that  she  was  lying  with- 
drawn as  far  as  possible  from  him.  His  elbow 
touched  her  slightly  and  at  once  she  shrank  away, 
but  she  did  not  speak.  He  had  made  the  movement 
tentatively  and  her  response  disturbed  him.  What 
was  the  matter  ?  What  had  he  done  ?  For  a  min- 
ute or  two  he  lay  wondering  and  then  little  by 
little  he  began  to  remember.  He  had  gone  to  the 
football  match  on  the  preceding  afternoon  and  he 
had  gone  primed.  The  gardener  had  that  morning 
brought  him  a  fresh  bottle  of  whiskey  and  before 

278 


TREASURE    TROVE  279 

he  went  out  he  had  taken  some,  not  so  very  much, 
but  perhaps  rather  more  than  was  wise.  His  fellow 
townsmen's  victory  had  come  as  a  surprise  to  him, 
a  pleasant  surprise.  Someone,  Dr.  Ackroyd  he 
thought,  had  suggested  a  drink,  and  some  other 
man  another.  He  had  not  understood  why  they 
should  have  given  him  a  feeling  of  worry  and  con- 
fusion, and  in  order  to  clear  his  head  he  had  or- 
dered himself  a  third  and  that  was  all  that  he  re- 
membered. How  and  when  he  had  reached  home 
he  had  not  the  faintest  recollection,  but  he  hoped 
for  the  best.  He  had  always  prided  himself  on 
the  way  he  carried  his  liquor,  surely  his  power  to 
seem  had  not  deserted  him.  Stifling  a  groan  of 
discomfort  he  turned  on  his  side  and  Eva,  who  had 
had  very  little  sleep,  lifted  her  ruffled  head  from 
the  pillow  and  perceiving  that  he  was  awake,  sat  up. 
Archie  had  married  a  sweet  and  affectionate 
girl.  To  say  that  her  outlook  was  sane,  that  she 
believed  as  she  had  been  taught  and  preferred  well- 
ordered  ways  to  breaking  out  a  path  for  herself  may 
make  her  seem  commonplace,  perhaps  even  a  little 
priggish.  But  it  is  curious  how  many  good  young 
creatures  are  either  priggish  or  sentimental,  and 
what  sharp  speeches  old  Dame  Nature  has  to  fling 
at  their  foolish  erect  young  heads  before  they  can 
be  brought  to  exchange  their  booklore  for  her  teach- 
ings. Eva  was  as  youthfully  intolerant  as  other  girls 
of  her  age,  and  had  as  many  cut  and  dried  theories 
as  to  what  she  would  do  if  this,  that,  or  the  other 


280  TREASURE   TROVE 

thing  happened;  and  on  this  occasion  she  had  had 
long  hours  in  which  to  think  over  the  irrevocable. 
It  is  not  perhaps  surprising  that  her  thinking  had 
by  no  means  inclined  her  to  mercy. 

Pushing  up  her  pillow  she  leant  against  it,  and 
described  to  the  poor  sinner  who  lay  silent  at  her 
side,  how  and  in  what  condition  he  had  returned 
to  her  on  the  preceding  day.  As  he  did  not  speak 
she  hesitated  for  a  moment  and  then  went  on  to  tell 
him  of  Mr.  Stilton's  visit  and  what  she  had  prom- 
ised. Being  angry  she  used  as  few  words  as  pos- 
sible, but  spoke  in  a  dry,  cold  fashion  which  showed 
her  husband  how  far  apart  they  now  stood. 

And  as  Archie  listened,  shame  and  remorse  like 
the  flowing  tide  rose  and  overwhelmed  him.  If  she 
had  known,  the  ice  which  was  forming  in  her  warm 
blood  must  have  melted  again.  But  he  could  not 
speak,  could  not  tell  her  and  she  did  not  see. 

"  You  promised  that  the  school  should  change 
hands  ?  "  he  said  when  she  paused. 

"  It  was  our  only  chance."  She  had  made  the 
arrangements  and  she  could  not  tell  from  his  voice 
whether  he  were  grateful  or  annoyed. 

"  Ah !  Well,  I  must  think  things  over.  I  shall 
not  get  up  just  yet." 

Eva  looked  at  him  coldly.  He  could  not  rise  be- 
cause after  the  indulgence  of  the  preceding  day, 
he  was  probably  feeling  ill.  "  It  is  fortunate,"  she 
said,  "  that  Easter  falls  late  this  year.  It  will  give 
us  time/' 


TREASURE    TROVE  281 

Archie's  face  was  bitter.  "  Oh,  very  fortunate," 
he  said.  Does  a  woman  ever  know  what  his  work 
is  to  a  man?  Can  she  realise  his  pride  in  it,  his 
love  for  it,  his  interest  in  all  concerning  it?  It  is 
doubtful  whether  Archie  would  have  felt  the  death 
of  his  son  more  than  the  loss  of  his  school.  And 
Eva  could  speak  of  it  calmly,  could  estimate  their 
chance  of  selling,  could  look  eagerly  past  that  sell- 
ing to  the  after  time,  the  time  when  it  would  be  no 
longer  his.  He  said  no  more  and  presently  she 
got  up  and  left  him.  She  had  her  own  troubles, 
but  her  pride  forbade  her  to  speak  of  them,  led  her 
out  instead  to  face  them. 

For  Eva  was  going  to  church.  Knowing  that 
she  and  her  husband  were  the  talk  of  their  little 
world,  she  would  yet  dress  as  usual,  though  a  little 
more  carefully,  take  her  prayer  book  and  hymnal, 
and  walk  at  the  usual  time  through  the  streets.  She 
would  sit  through  the  service  in  her  appointed  place 
and  afterwards  she  would  greet  her  neighbours, 
would  smile  and  chat.  As  she  turned  in  at  her  own 
gate  the  stereotyped  smile  still  on  her  lips,  she 
thought  confusedly  that  if  the  ordeal  by  fire  had 
been  still  in  use  she  must  have  qualified  for  a  tri- 
umphant passing  of  it.  But  her  bravery  won  her 
little  honour.  The  world  does  not  love  a  stoic,  and 
the  general  opinion  was  that  Mrs.  Flowerdew 
would  have  shown  a  finer  appreciation  of  the  posi- 
tion if  she  had  stayed  at  home.  "  She  should  have 
been  ashamed  to  show  her  face,"  remarked  Milly 


282  TREASURE   TROVE 

Ackroyd,  the  doctor's  wife,  to  a  group  of  women 
who  were  standing  by  the  lych-gate  of  the  church. 

"  Rather  lacking  in  refinement,"  murmured  Mrs. 
Gilbert  Smith,  "but  then,  who  was  she?" 

Mrs.  Stilton  stopped  in  passing.  "  I  don't  know, 
but  she's  a  brave  girl.  I'm  as  sorry  about  it  as  ever 
I  can  be,"  and  she  went  on  up  the  road. 

And  Mrs.  Ackroyd,  who  thought  Mrs.  Gilbert 
Smith  affected,  suddenly  veered  round.  After  all 
the  Stiltons  were  patients  while  the  Gilbert  Smiths 
had  gone  to  a  new  man.  "  She  was  a  Miss  Smart," 
she  said  maliciously.  "  Her  grandfather  was  Sir 
Jocelyn  Smart  of  Smarden  Priory." 

"  Oh,  did  she  tell  you  so  ?  "  murmured  the  other 
languidly. 

"  No,  it's  in  Burke."  She  had  taken  the  trouble 
to  look  it  up.  She  always  maintained  that  you  could 
not  know  too  much  about  your  neighbours. 

"  Really,"  she  glanced  after  Eva's  tall  figure  as 
it  went  down  the  road,  "  she  doesn't  look  it,  indeed 
her  coming  to  church  this  morning  struck  me  as 
in  very  bad  taste.  Mrs.  Stilton  called  it  brave  and 
I  may  be  wrong  of  course,  but  brave  is  hardly  the 
word  I  should  have  used." 

Archie  Flowerdew  had  what  meals  he  ate  that 
day  brought  to  his  room,  and  when  Eva  after  her 
various  duties  as  housewife,  mother  and  matron 
had  been  performed,  went  upstairs,  she  found  him 
sitting  rather  drearily  at  one  end  of  the  sofa.  She 
had  been  at  concert  pitch  all  day,  supported  in  her 


TREASURE   TROVE  283 

role  by  that  bitter  pride  of  hers  and  she  now  seated 
herself  at  the  other  end  of  the  sofa.  "Well?" 
said  she,  and  her  voice  was  as  bright  as  sunshine 
on  a  wintry  day. 

But  she  was  speaking  to  a  broken  man.  Archie 
had  been  humiliated  beyond  endurance,  both  by  the 
publicity  of  his  disgrace  and  by  the  fact  that  it  had 
been  he,  Archibald  Flowerdew,  the  man  that  had 
held  his  head  so  fastidiously  high,  so  much  higher 
than  his  fellow-men,  who  was  come  down  to  this. 
He  had  been  so  clever,  so  successful,  and  yet  it  was 
he  who  had  done  this  thing,  who  had  let  a  vice  creep 
insidiously  upon  him  until  it  had  got  the  mastery. 
He  hated  and  loathed  it.  He  hated  and  loathed  him- 
self, but  when  Eva's  voice  broke  in  upon  his  miser- 
able thoughts,  it  brought  with  it  a  spark  of  hope, 
for  he  saw  at  last  what  he  must  do.  He  had  been 
shamed  before  his  wife  and  now  he  was  shamed 
before  the  world,  if  he  were  ever  to  hold  up  his 
head  again  he  must  wipe  away  that  shame.  For 
desperate  ailments  desperate  remedies. 

Seeing  that  he  did  not  answer  Eva  put  her  query 
in  another  form. 

"  Have  you  made  up  your  mind  ? "  she  said. 
"  You  have  had  the  day  to  think  it  over  and  I  must 
know  what  you  are  going  to  do." 

The  man  looked  down  at  his  hands,  lying  loosely 
clasped  between  his  knees.  "  I  am  going  away,"  he 
said  dully.  "  As  soon  as  the  school  is  sold  I  am 
going  away." 


284  TREASURE   TROVE 

"  I  suppose  we — we  shall  all  be  going  away." 
If  he  had  loved  his  business,  she  had  loved  the  walls 
which  made  it  home.  With  what  economy  and  fore- 
thought they  had  lined  the  nest,  the  nest  to  which 
little  Jocelyn  had  come,  to  which  in  due  time  others 
might  have  come,  and  now  it  would  be  taken  from 
them.  A  wave  of  bitterness  flooded  Eva's  heart. 

"  Yes,"  he  said.    "  But  I  am  going — by  myself." 

The  girl  did  not  grasp  his  meaning.  "By  your- 
self? "  she  echoed. 

"  You  did  your  best  for  me,  but  it  was  no  good. 
Somehow  the  mere  fact  that  I  had  promised  you, 
was  against  me.  I  see  that  if  a  man  would  get  to 
any  place  he  must  fight  his  way  there  by  himself." 
He  turned  and  looked  across  at  her  and  she  saw 
the  despondency  which  he  was  not  attempting  to 
conceal.  "  I  have  been  thinking  and  thinking  and 
it  seems  to  me  that  I  must  go  away — by  myself — 
and  fight.  If — if  I  win  I  shall  come  back  to  you." 

He  had  taken  for  granted  that  her  anger  and 
coldness  were  for  the  moment  and  that  below  them 
lay  her  unchangeable  affection,  and  Eva  could  not 
but  respond  to  his  fine  knowledge  of  her.  Her  disap- 
pointment seemed  suddenly  a  small  and  petty  thing. 
Before  his  tragedy  of  a  man's  soul  what  was  her 
disillusionment,  the  loss  of  their  position,  the  sell- 
ing of  their  home?  Home  for  her  would  be  wher- 
ever this  man  was,  a  palace,  a  hovel,  any  space  under 
the  broad  arch  of  heaven,  for  she  was  one  of  those 
simple  women  to  whom  marriage  is  union,  a  union 


TREASURE   TROVE  285 

which  nothing,  not  Death  nor  anything  in  life,  can 
dissolve. 

"  If  you  win  ?  "  she  murmured  blankly  and  now 
she  sat  apart  from  him  because  she  did  not  dare  to 
come  any  nearer.  What  were  her  loyalty,  her  de- 
sire to  comfort,  her  tender  yearning  in  the  face  of 
such  a  grief  as  his  ?  Things  so  inadequate,  that  she 
could  not  proffer  them. 

"  If  I  win,"  he  said  and  sank  back  into  his  un- 
happy thoughts. 

The  afternoon  was  waning  and  it  had  begun  to 
rain.  Eva  had  walked  to  church  in  a  glory  of 
windy  light,  but  now  the  sun  was  gone  in,  the 
breeze  had  died  away  and  the  grey  rain  was  blur- 
ring all  the  landscape. 

Like  stealthy  footsteps  in  the  grass, 
Rustling  the  rain  did  fall — 

and  Eva  listened  to  it,  at  first  blankly  as  one  for 
whom  all  decisions  have  been  made,  but  after  a  time 
with  growing  perturbation.  The  calm  of  despair 
had  fallen  upon  her  husband,  but  hers  was  a  more 
vital  nature,  and  though  she  would  not  attempt  to 
alter  or  even  modify  his  resolution,  she  began  to 
see  what  it  must  mean  to  her.  His  figure  loomed 
heroic  through  the  mists  of  sentiment.  He  would 
go  out  and  redeem  his  manhood  or  he  would  go 
under;  but  meanwhile  she  and  little  Jocelyn  and — 
and  that  other  who  was  coming,  they  would  not 


286  TREASURE   TROVE 

know,  they  would  be  waiting  and  listening  and 
hoping  and  it  would  be,  oh,  it  would  be  unbear- 
able! 

But  she  did  not  say  so.  She  sat  on,  her  figure  a 
little  hunched  together,  in  the  attitude  people  sink 
into  when  their  courage  is  at  a  low  ebb,  for  if — if 
he  never  came  back? 

She  must  give  him  every  inducement  to  win  and 
she  did  not  see  that  in  so  doing  she  would  make 
the  tragedy  of  his  failure,  if  failure  it  were  to  be, 
more  terrible. 

"  Archie,"  she  murmured  softly,  "  I  told  you 
that  perhaps " 

The  man  had  been  sitting  among  his  ruined  hopes, 
but  her  voice  calling  to  him  brought  him  out  from 
among  them.  In  this  very  room  not  so  many  weeks 
ago  she  had  whispered  to  him  a  hope  and  something 
in  her  tones  reminded  him  of  it. 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  and  turned  towards  her,  full  of 
a  new-born  eagerness,  for  Archie  was  naturally  a 
father  and  even  in  such  an  hour  her  news  would 
give  him  joy. 

"  I — I  was  right,'*  she  said  shyly.  "  It  will  be 
in  October,  in  October  again,"  for  Jocelyn  had 
come  to  them  in  the  month  of  pheasants. 

He  crossed  the  space  of  sofa  that  had  divided 
them.  "  Oh,  my  dear  girl,  my  dear  girl,"  he  mur- 
mured and  now  she  was  in  his  arms. 

"  You  are  glad,  Archie  ?  " 

But  she  had  no  doubts.     He  loved  children,  he 


TREASURE    TROVE  287 

would  like  to  have  as  many  as  she  could  give  him, 
he  would  be  proud  of  her  and  grateful  to  her  every 
time  that  she  made  him  a  father. 

"  Glad  ?  "  he  cried,  and  then  remembered.  "  And 
I  must  leave  you,  you  and  my — my  children.  Oh 
God !  "  He  paused  and  his  broken  look  returned. 
"  Eva,  you  have  given  just  the  little  extra  turn  to 
the  screw." 

But  she  did  not  understand.  She  thought  she 
had  now  made  it  certain  that  he  would  return,  and 
she  told  him  so. 

He  looked  at  her  queerly.  When  a  man  goes 
down  into  the  depths  he  brings  a  strange  and  bitter 
knowledge  back  with  him.  "  You  do  not  know," 
he  whispered  huskily,  "  a  man  can  do  without  every- 
thing that  he  has,  everything  that  he  loves,  except 
his  vice." 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

MR.  FLOWERDEW  was  fortunate  in  that  his  agent 
was  able  to  find  him  a  purchaser  ready  to  buy  and 
anxious  to  enter  into  possession.  He  did  not  re- 
ceive what  he  had  paid  for  the  school,  but  that  he 
had  scarcely  expected  and  the  sum  paid,  was  more 
than  enough  to  support  his  wife  in  comfort  for  a 
time. 

"  But  what  will  you  do?  "  she  asked  when  he  ex- 
plained the  monetary  arrangements  he  had  made, 
and  spoke  of  opening  a  banking  account  for  her. 

"  I  ?  Oh  I  shall  work,"  he  answered  lightly  and 
she  realised  with  the  pain  that  comes  to  every  wo- 
man when  the  man  whom  she  has  cherished  is 
about  to  face  privation,  that  he  meant  poverty  to  be 
one  of  the  factors  of  his  new  life. 

"  But  you  are  not  strong,"  she  urged. 

He  looked  at  her  gravely.  "  Oh,  yes,"  he  said, 
"  I  am  strong  enough.  I  did  not  tell  you  the  truth," 
and  he  smiled  at  her,  the  old  whimsical  smile.  "Dear, 
you  have  lots  of  commonsense,  but  you  are  not  very 
clever,  you  ought  to  have  seen  through  me  long 
ago." 

"  Oh  but  Archie,  I  trusted  you." 

"  And  it  is  such  a  mistake  that." 

"To  trust?" 

288 


TREASURE   TROVE  289 

"  Yes."  He  did  not  often  trouble  himself  to  dis- 
turb her  settled  convictions.  "  Dear,  you  have 
plenty  of  intuition  and  I  fancy  you  must  have  been 
meant  to  use  it.  When  you  do,  you  will  find  it  a 
better  servant  than  trust.  But  now  we  must  really 
talk  business.  You  will  go  to  your  mother  ?  " 

"  In  October  but  not  before." 

"Not  before?" 

"  I  couldn't,  Archie.     I  couldn't  face  them  all." 

"Then  where?" 

"  I  could  get  a  room  at  Oldmeadow  Farm. 
There  are  several  that  are  never  used  and  I  know 
Tamsin  would  like  to  have  me.  Why  should  the 
Eastham  people  know  anything,  anything  at  all  ?  " 

" '  Why  should  the  other  women  know  so 
much — '  eh  ?  My  dear  it  is  a  little  world,  but  still 
you  shall  do  as  you  like.  I  thought  you  would  want 
to  be  with  your  mother." 

"  Ashwater  isn't  far  from  Eastham." 

"  You  will  take  lodgings  at  the  farm  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  It  sounds  a  good  idea." 

During  that  last  month  Eva's  health  suffered 
from  the  restraint  which  she  put  upon  herself,  for 
neither  by  word  nor  look  would  she  hold  him  back 
from  the  course  of  action  upon  which  he  had  re- 
solved. Instead  she  assumed  a  cheerfulness  she 
was  far  from  feeling  and  went  about  her  daily  work 
with  pleasant  words  and  a  tranquil  face.  But  her 
heart  was  very  sore.  How  could  she  live  without 


290  TREASURE   TROVE 

him,  how  get  through  the  days,  how  bear  the  ter- 
rible uncertainty?  While  he  lay  sleeping  by  her 
side  at  night,  and  Archie  slept  well,  then  and  then 
alone  might  the  tears  fall;  but  through  the  hours 
of  daylight  she  must  endure  and  she  must  smile. 
Nor  would  she  have  had  it  otherwise.  Happiness 
is  a  great  matter,  but  to  Eva  Flowerdew  pride  was 
a  greater.  She  could  live  through  their  separation 
if  only  at  the  end  of  it  she  might  be  able  to  feel 
that  in  a  world  of  men,  he  whom  she  had  married, 
he  also  was  a  man. 

Meanwhile  however,  she  suffered,  losing  her 
pretty  contours  and  the  rich  damask  of  her  cheeks. 
But  the  end  comes,  even  to  such  situations  as  hers 
and  Archie's,  such  long  drawn  out  unhappiness, 
such  dread,  such  mutual  sorrow.  They  parted  on  a 
warm  May  day  when  the  holm-oaks  of  the  little 
avenues  were  growing  yellow  with  young  leaves 
and  catkins;  and  while  Eva  and  little  Jocelyn  took 
the  train  to  Ashwater,  Archie  shaken  and  almost  un- 
manned by  that  last  silent  clinging  of  his  wife, 
turned  his  face  towards  Eastham.  Before  he 
slipped  away  out  of  the  tiny  world  to  which  he  was 
known,  he  must  see  his  sister  and  commend  to  her 
his  dear  ones.  Her  husband  would  not  help — and 
there  he  wronged  Matt  Johnson  who  would  not  lend 
upon  bad  security  but  who  could  give — but  Mary, 
Mary  had  always  been  his  friend!  He  had  not 
seen  much  of  her  since  his  marriage.  At  first,  new 
husband  and  new  wife,  he  and  Eva  had  been  ab- 


TREASURE   TROVE  291 

sorbed  in  each  other  and  afterwards,  well  after- 
wards he  had  hardly  liked  to  go  over.  Mary  had 
quick  eyes,  and  her  disposition  was  not  so  trusting 
as  Eva's.  He  had  not  wanted  Mary  to  know. 

But  now  she  must,  and  when  he  saw  her  kind 
face  with  its  worn  look — for  Mary  was  one  of  those 
women  who  live  long  lives  and  yet  hardly  know 
what  it  is  to  be  free  from  pain,  he  remembered 
that  she  had  always  understood  and  made  allow- 
ances for  him. 

"  You  don't  know  the  temptation,  Mary,"  he  said, 
looking  round  at  her  charming  room  with  its  vista 
of  flower-set  garden  and  green  tennis  lawn.  As 
far  as  he  could  see  she  had  everything  that  she  could 
need,  an  adoring  husband,  clever,  vital  children, 
and  plenty  of  money. 

"Ah,  but  don't  I?"  she  said.  How  blind  and 
self-absorbed  he  had  always  been.  She  had  a  great 
deal  to  be  thankful  for  but  the  heart  knoweth  its 
own  bitterness  and  her  bad  health,  her  craving  for 
companionship,  for  some  outlet  into  the  world  of 
books  and  music  and  pictures,  rose  one  by  one  out 
of  the  little  graves  in  which  she  had  sought  to  bury 
them  and  confronted  her.  "  Ah,  but  don't  I  ?  "  she 
murmured  again. 

"  How  can  you  ?  "  said  her  brother,  "  when  you 
have  all  this  ?  "  and  he  indicated  the  books  and  the 
photographs  of  old  masters  with  which  she  had 
lined  her  walls.  "  When  you  have  no  money  wor- 
ries, no " 


292  TREASURE    TROVE 

"  Nerves  ?  "  said  Mary.  "  Oh,  I  know  you  are 
absurdly  sensitive."  She  knew  because  she  herself 
had  always  taken  things  too  hardly. 

"  Ah,  you  understand  me,"  he  said  comfortably. 
"  And  so  perhaps  you  do  know  how  I  feel.  I  am 
worried  about  some  trifle  and  a  glass  makes  me 
easier  in  my  mind  and  so  I  take  one  and  then  an- 
other; and  after  a  time  I  want  it,  I  feel  I  must 
have  it,  I'm  just  mad  to  get  it.  The  craving  comes 
and  I  hate  anyone  who  would  prevent  me  having 
it.  When  it  is  at  its  worst  I  would  lie  and  steal 
and  beg  for  it,  humiliate  myself  in  any  way,  oh 
yes." 

Mary  had  her  own  secrets.  "  Yes,  of  course," 
she  said  pitifully. 

"  But  you  don't  know  what  the  craving  is,"  pro- 
tested Archie.  "  The  damnable  strength  of  it,  no- 
body could  know  who  has  not  felt  it." 

His  delicate  and  fragile  sister,  on  her  couch  be- 
neath the  window,  wondered  if  she  must  tell  him; 
for  there  had  been  a  time  in  Mary  Johnson's  life 
when  she  had  craved  the  alcohol  which  delivered  her 
from  an  almost  constant  feeling  of  debility.  But 
recognising  her  danger  she  had  recoiled  in  time. 
Even  so,  it  had  for  many  a  day  been  uphill  work 
for  her  feet,  and  she  would  never  forget,  never. 

"  Uncle  Joseph  died  of  it  and  Great-Uncle 
Charles,"  said  her  brother  sombrely. 

"  Uncle  Joseph  was  one  of  eight  and  Great- 
Uncle  Charles  the  youngest  of  eleven,"  she  said 


TREASURE    TROVE  293 

slowly.  "  The  others  probably  felt  the  craving  and 
fought  against  it  and  won  through — as  you  will  do. 
We  know  that  Great-Aunt  Dorcas  drank  when  she 
was  a  middle-aged  woman,  for  it  is  one  of  those 
family  secrets  that  the  whole  family  knows,  but 
look  at  her  now,  a  most  respectable  old  lady.  The 
fact  is  we  only  hear  of  those  who  go  under.  Those 
who  have  made  a  fight  for  it,  prefer  to  pose  as  hav- 
ing been  always  virtuous." 

"You  think  so?"  said  Flowerdew,  marvelling 
over  the  secretiveness  of  mankind,  of  those  hidden 
misdemeanours,    conquered    weaknesses   which   go 
about  concealed  behind  spotless  garments. 
"  Oh  I?    Yes,  I— I  know  it  is  so." 
"  At  any  rate  it  is  a  helpful  sort  of  theory." 
"  What  are  your  plans  ?  "    It  did  not  seem  as  if 
that  confession  upon  the  edge  of  which  she  had 
hesitated,   would  be  necessary.     Her  poor  secret, 
she  might  return  it  to  its  cupboard  and  still  pose 
as  immaculate. 

"  I  shall  go  to  Bannerman.  You  remember  him  ? 
One  of  the  friends  I  made  at  Oxford." 

"  I  remember  him."  The  days  when  Archie  had 
been  at  Oxford  had  been  the  happiest  of  her  life. 
There  was  nothing  about  them  that  she  did  not 
vividly  remember. 

"  He  runs  a  Labour  Bureau.  Of  all  things — 
but  he  may  be  useful  now." 

"  You  will  get  him  to  find  you  something  to  do?  " 
"  Yes,  I  shall  own  up  and  take  anything  he  of- 


294  TREASURE   TROVE 

fers,  dock -labourer,  factory  hand,  secretary  to  a  so- 
ciety, anything.  If  he  has  nothing  to  give  me,  well 
I  don't  know,  I  shall  see." 

"  But  manual  labour,  Archie  ?  " 

"  I  have  a  fancy  that  it  would  be  good  for  me  to 
use  my  muscles;  to  rise  early,  to  dig,  hoe,  plant, 
tire  myself  out  and  go  dead  sleepy  to  my  bed.  It 
would  be  one  way  of  righting  the  enemy.  It's  just 
an  idea  of  mine  and  of  course  I  may  be  wrong." 

Mary  did  not  venture  to  offer  an  opinion.  She 
did  not  believe  much  in  adventitious  aids,  but  she 
might  be  mistaken.  At  any  rate  he  could  try  them. 
"  And  meanwhile  what  is  Eva  going  to  do  ?  '* 

"  She  declines  to  come  back  here.  Mrs.  Smart 
wishes  it,  but  Eva  says  there  are  some  things  a  wo- 
man cannot  do." 

"You  have  always  held  yourself  so  aloof  from 
gossip  Archie,  that  you  hardly  realise  its  power. 
You  can't  imagine  the  chatter  there  would  be  if  she 
were  here  without  you." 

"  And  what  does  the  chatter  of  such  people  mat- 
ter?" 

The  worn  lines  in  Mrs.  Johnson's  face  deepened 
a  little.  "  Such  people !  "  That  had  always  been 
his  attitude  towards  those  less  clever  than  himself 
and  in  her  secret  heart  it  had  been  hers  too.  There 
had  been  a  time  when  she  had  hated  her  wholesome 
suburban  neighbours,  used  a  caustic  tongue  upon 
them,  made  reckless  efforts  to  enlarge  her  circle. 
She  had  been  unsuccessful,  she  had  been  desperate, 


TREASURE   TROVE  295 

only  now  because  she  was  growing  older  and  be- 
cause it  was  no  use  kicking  against  the  pricks,  was 
she  quiet. 

"  Ah,  be  sensible,"  she  said.  "  Some  day  you 
will  want  to  begin  again;  and  then  you  will  be 
glad  that  Eva  at  least  has  considered  peoples'  prej- 
udices. Meanwhile,  where  will  she  be?" 

"  She  is  gone  to  the  little  farm  which  belonged 
to  her  grandmother.  She  went  down  to-day."  His 
face  contracted.  It  was  only  an  hour  or  two  since 
he  had  parted  from  her,  since  he  had  seen  that  silent 
agony  written  on  her  face. 

"  Oh  Archie,  you  must  come  back,  you  must 
come  back,"  cried  his  sister. 

"  Do  you  think  I  don't  want  to  ?  "  he  flung  out 
fiercely.  "  Great  heavens,  I'm  as  much  in  love  with 
her  now  as  on  the  day  I  married  her,  more  I  think." 
He  described  to  his  sister  how  the  girl  had  gone 
through  the  streets  on  that  Sunday  morning,  how 
she  had  faced  Mr.  Stilton  and  turned  his  righteous 
indignation  to  their  advantage  and  Mary  listened 
with  a  growing  admiration.  Hitherto  she  had 
looked  upon  her  brother's  choice  as  one  hardly 
worthy  of  him,  a  good  healthy  young  woman  who 
would  bear  him  children  and  mind  his  house,  but 
from  whom  he  must  not  expect  much  in  the  way  of 
companionship. 

"  How  she  has  developed,"  she  said.  "  Well  I 
will  go  over  to  Ashwater  as  often  as  I  can.  The 
car  Matt  has  given  me  will  make  it  easy,  and  I'll 


296  TREASURE   TROVE 

keep  an  eye  upon  them  Archie — till — till  you  come 
back." 

The  girl  of  whom  they  had  been  talking  stood 
in  need  not  perhaps  of  mere  kindness,  for  who  can 
minister  to  such  an  one,  but  of  all  the  courage  which 
she  possessed.  She  had  taken  up  an  attitude  which 
it  was  marvellously  difficult  to  maintain.  Archie 
had  left  her  for  a  time,  as  sailors,  soldiers  and 
others,  are  forced  to,  but  he  would  return.  Not 
even  to  herself  would  she  admit  a  doubt  of  that 
ultimate  return,  much  less  to  any  of  the  few  with 
whom  she  was  brought  into  contact.  She  bore  her- 
self as  one  content  to  wait,  looking  after  little 
Jocelyn  and  facing  the  responsibilities  of  her  new 
life  as  simply  as  she  had  the  small  daily  events  of 
her  quiet  girlhood.  Tamsin  was  glad  to  have  her, 
glad  of  the  small  extra  sum  per  week  which  she 
paid  for  board  and  lodging,  glad  of  her  help  with 
the  big  broods  and  in  the  vegetable  garden. 

The  little  old  Cornishwoman  was  herself  none 
too  happy.  For  her  the  year  had  galloped  past  and 
she  looked  forward  with  mingled  feelings  to  the 
time  when  Mrs.  Smart  should  come  to  take  her 
place;  and  she  should  be  free  to  go  down  to  Port 
Isaac  to  give  Captain  Honey  his  answer.  Even 
now  she  did  not  know  what  to  say.  She  was  doing 
well  with  the  farm,  better  even  than  her  late  mis- 
tress had,  and  it  seemed  a  pity  to  give  it  up;  while 
on  the  other  hand  this  was  probably  her  last  chance 
of  matrimony.  Tamsin  did  not  believe  that  any- 


TREASURE    TROVE  297 

body  who  could  find  a  mate  would  remain  single; 
and  thinking  so,  she  naturally  regarded  all  spin- 
sters as  failures.  To  achieve  independence  was  all 
very  well,  but  a  clever  woman  could  do  better  than 
that,  she  could  marry.  That  was  success,  and  that 
was  what  Tamsin  the  keen  farmer,  the  shrewd  wo- 
man of  business,  craved  above  all  other  goods.  She 
had  success  as  men  see  it,  but  she  wanted  the  suc- 
cess which  would  appeal  to  her  fellow-woman. 

She  began  the  preparations  for  her  fortnight  at 
Port  Isaac  in  some  trepidation;  and  Eva,  grown 
more  sympathetic,  gave  her  what  assistance  she 
could. 

"  When  Ah'm  there,  Ah'll  feel  more  sure  as  to 
what  Ah  do  really  want,"  she  said.  At  the  July 
sales  she  had  bought  herself  a  velveteen  dress  of  a 
rich  tobacco  brown,  and  Eva,  who  had  clever  fin- 
gers, had  helped  to  adapt  it  to  her  figure.  With  a 
collar  of  Irish  crochet  it  would  look  very  well  and 
Mrs.  Flowerdew  as  she  had  ripped  and  pinned  had 
told  her  so.  But  Tamsin  was  not  altogether  pleased. 
"  Jan  Honey  did  always  say  as  he  liked  quiet  dress- 
ing and  this  be  quiet,"  she  said  dubiously,  "  but  red 
'ud  ha'  suited  me  better." 

"  Oh  no,  Tamsin." 

"  Well  mysen  Ah'm  none  so  fond  o'  quiet  dowdy 
things,  but  Ah  will  say  as  this  fare  soft,"  and  she 
smoothed  the  brown  folds  with  a  horny  finger. 
"  'Tes  good  of  'ee  Miss  Eva  to  be  bothering  over  a 
oal  body,  when  'ee've  troubles  enough  of  your  own." 


298  TREASURE   TROVE 

"  Helps  me  to  forget  them,  Tamsin." 

"  Aw  'ee've  a  stout  heart.  Look,  there  do  be 
postman  coming  up  the  road.  Wonder  if  that's  a 
letter  from  Miss  Minty,  saying  her  can  come  o' 
Saturday  week?  " 

"  I'll  go  and  see.  You'll  do  now  Tamsin,  take 
off  the  dress  and  I'll  set  to  work  on  it  this  evening." 

Eva  went  carefully  down  the  narrow  stairs.  She 
never  forgot  that  her  grandmother  had  slipped  on 
the  oilcloth  at  the  head  of  them,  and  she  was  anx- 
ious not  to  endanger  her  hope  of  motherhood.  When 
Archie  came  back  she  hoped  to  have  a  new  little 
Eva  to  show  him,  a  tiny  epitome  of  her  dark,  rosy, 
brown-eyed  self;  but  if  her  dreams  were  to  material- 
ise, she  must  be  careful,  oh  very  careful,  and  the 
stairs  were  at  all  times  awkward,  so  steep  and  with 
such  a  sharp  turn. 

The  postman  was  at  the  gate  when  she  reached 
it  and  the  letter  that  he  offered  her  proved  to  be  in 
her  mother's  handwriting,  but  its  contents  were 
hardly  what  she  had  expected.  Mrs.  Smart  hoped 
to  come  over  on  Saturday  week,  but  Tamsin  was 
not  to  build  upon  her  doing  so,  for  something  had 
happened  which  might  alter  her  plans.  It  had  to 
do  with  Willy,  but  she  did  not  wish  to  discuss  it  in 
a  letter.  Could  Eva  come  for  the  day  and  bring 
Jocelyn?  She  was  much  upset,  and  uncertain  what 
to  do  for  the  best ;  but  if  Eva  came  they  could  talk 
it  over. 

Upstairs  Tamsin  was  laying  the  brown  velveteen 


TREASURE    TROVE  299 

carefully  away  in  its  cardboard  box.  In  the  still- 
ness of  the  summer  evening  Eva  could  hear  the  rus- 
tling of  the  tissue  paper,  as  she  laid  it  between  the 
soft  folds.  She  stood  for  a  moment  with  her  elbows 
on  the  top  rail  of  the  little  green  gate,  a  fresh  anx- 
iety tugging  at  her  heart.  What  did  her  mother 
mean?  Of  course  she  would  go  over,  but  what, 
what  had  Willy  been  doing? 


CHAPTER  XIX 

COLONEL  SMART  had  long  since  found  comfortable 
quarters  for  himself  in  Jermyn  Street,  but  his  town 
life  by  no  means  absorbed  him.  At  sixty  he  was  still 
energetic,  still  eager,  still  at  a  moment's  notice  ready 
to  pack  a  bag  and  follow  the  beckoning  ringer  of 
a  fresh  interest.  His  life  was  as  full  as  he  could 
wish,  his  friends  as  numerous,  his  health  as  good, 
and  down  at  Eastham  in  a  commonplace  house  with 
a  window  on  each  side  of  the  front  door  and  three 
in  a  row  above,  were  people  for  whom  he  cared  as 
much  as  he  could  for  anybody.  They  remained  and 
he  came  and  went  as  pleased  him,  for  him  a  most 
satisfactory,  indeed  an  ideal  state  of  affairs. 

One  July  day,  having  found  London  entertain- 
ments very  hot,  and  London  unreality  very  tiring, 
he  had  wired  to  his  sister-in-law  that  he  proposed 
to  come  down  that  evening  in  time  for  dinner,  and 
if  she  could  have  him,  would  stay  a  day  or  two 
before  going  north.  An  old  friend  who  owned  some 
islands  off  the  coast  of  Scotland  had  invited  him 
to  his  bachelor  castle  and  Colonel  Smart  thought 
that  after  four  months  of  the  metropolis  sea-breezes 
would  be  refreshing. 

Minty  had  of  course  perceived  that  her  brother- 
300 


TREASURE   TROVE  301 

in-law  looked  upon  The  Laurels  rather  than  his 
chambers  as  home,  and  she  was  willing,  even 
pleased  that  he  should.  The  feeling  that  she  could 
ask  his  advice  but  need  not  take  it,  that  she  had  a 
man  upon  whose  arm  she  could  lean,  while  at  the 
same  time  she  retained  her  freedom,  gave  her  a 
sense  of  security  and  companionship.  She  was  no 
longer  entirely  responsible,  and  yet  she  was  at  lib- 
erty to  do  as  she  liked.  When  she  received  his  wire 
with  its  prepaid  reply,  she  smiled  at  his  masculine 
extravagance,  and  at  once  set  about  improving  and 
enlarging  the  evening  meal.  He  must  have  a  curry ! 
Long  ago,  when  home  on  leave,  he  had  taught  her 
how  to  make  one,  and  since  then  had  averred  con- 
tentedly that  hers  always  made  him  fancy  himself 
back  in  India.  And  there  must  be  salad  with  the 
roast  chicken!  She  would  go  out  and  choose  the 
ingredients  herself;  if  anyone  knew  how  to  choose 
a  salad  it  was  she. 

Her  welcome  of  him  if  a  silent  one,  took  a  form 
which  he  could  appreciate,  for  the  Colonel  after  one 
of  Minty's  dinners  was  apt  to  say  he  understood  why 
men  who  married  their  cooks,  so  seldom  regretted  it. 

The  meal  to  which  the  three  presently  sat  down 
in  the  terra-cotta  dining-room  was  simple,  nourish- 
ing and  beautifully  cooked;  but  Mrs.  Smart  saw 
with  dismay  that  the  Colonel  and  the  Colonel  only, 
appreciated  it.  For  some  months  Willy  had  seemed 
pre-occupied  and  anxious,  but  to-night  he  hardly 
heard  her  when  she  spoke,  while  it  was  evident  that 


302  TREASURE   TROVE 

what  food  he  took  and  it  was  very  little,  was  swal- 
lowed mechanically.  Her  excellent  dinner!  As 
course  succeeded  course,  Mrs.  Smart's  anxiety  grew. 
What  could  be  the  matter  with  the  boy  ?  After  his 
long  day  in  the  city,  he  should  be  ready  for  his 
food,  the  good  wholesome  food  which  she  had  pro- 
vided. He  might  have  been  forgiven  if  it  had  been 
only  the  curry  which  he  passed,  curries  were  queer 
and  she  did  not  know  that  she  cared  about  them, 
but  the  chicken,  the  young  and  tender  chicken !  She 
had  given  him  the  liver-wing,  remembering  that  he 
preferred  it  to  any  other  part,  and  he  had  eaten — 
was  it  four  mouthfuls  or  only  three?  What  could 
have  happened?  Hitherto  a  visit  from  his  uncle 
had  been  more  than  enough  to  draw  him  out  of  any 
pre-occupation,  but  to-night  he  sat  mute  and  dull, 
his  curious  eyes  more  opaque  than  usual  and  their 
lids  heavy. 

Colonel  Smart  found  his  surroundings  restful. 
The  spicy  scent  of  geraniums  came  through  the  open 
window;  and  in  the  precise  front  garden  their  or- 
dered ranks  rose  behind  the  blue  lobelia  of  the  bor- 
der. The  old  soldier  had  eaten  well  and  was  at  his 
ease,  he  could  talk  or  not  talk  as  liked  him  best; 
and  Minty  would  listen,  would  comment,  and  would 
go  on  with  whatever  her  hand  had  found  to  do. 
The  atmosphere  was  peaceful  and  he  felt  that  when 
he  grew  old  and  consequently  tired,  he  would  ask 
nothing  better  than  to  spend  his  last  days  under  his 
sister-in-law's  roof.  He  looked  across  at  her  whole- 


TREASURE   TROVE  303 

some  face,  wondering  whether  she  would  agree, 
whether  he  could  be  sure  of  this  asylum. 

"  Ah  Minty,"  he  said,  "  you  don't  know  how 
difficult  it  is  for  me,  once  I  am  here,  to  pack  my 
trunks  and  depart.  You  make  me  so  comfort- 
able/' 

His  sister-in-law  smiled  at  him,  her  warm  and 
motherly  smile.  "  Why  depart  ?  "  said  she. 

"  That  is  what  it  will  come  to,"  he  returned. 
"  This  place  is  idyllic,  the  very  home  of  peace." 

His  nephew  caught  the  last  word.  "  Peace !  Who 
wants  it?"  he  said,  and  Mrs.  Smart  noticed  that 
his  voice  had  a  harsh  quality  which  was  new  to  hen 

"  Not  the  young,"  allowed  Colonel  Smart,  and 
from  thinking  of  his  latter  end,  returned  to  those 
gay  and  gallant  days  when  an  asylum  for  his  old 
age  was  the  last  thing  of  which  he  thought.  Ah, 
the  good  years,  how  intensely  he  had  lived !  Oh  the 
work  and  the  play,  the  love  and  the  money-getting, 
and  all  that  goes  to  the  making  of  a  life! 

Mrs.  Smart  had  risen  from  the  table  and  was 
putting  the  cruets  away  in  the  sideboard,  while  the 
servant  cleared.  When  the  Colonel  was  with  them 
she  spent  her  evenings  in  the  drawing-room  and  he 
was  free  to  join  her  or  not  as  he  chose.  As  she 
went  towards  the  door,  Willy  stopped  her  with  a 
gesture  and  she  came  back  to  him.  "  What  is  it, 
dearie?  " 

"  Oh,  it's  the  end,"  he  said  miserably,  "  I've  got 
to  tell  you,  so  I  may  as  well  get  it  over." 


304  TREASURE   TROVE 

The  Colonel  made  as  if  to  rise  and  go,  but  the 
young  man  stopped  him.  "  You'll  have  to  know," 
he  said. 

Mrs.  Smart  slipped  back  onto  the  chair  she  had 
been  occupying,  a  sick  feeling  of  apprehension  at  her 
heart.  Had  Willy  quarrelled  with  his  partner? 
Was  he  tired  of  being  a  stockbroker?  For  months 
she  had  been  secretly  dreading  some  outbreak  on 
his  part;  and  now,  had  it  come? 

"  I "  began  Willy,  hesitating  over  his  ex- 
planation. "  I've  lost  the  money  that  you  gave  me 
Mother,  Granny's  money." 

Mrs.  Smart's  spirits  rose.  Was  that  all?  He  had 
been  speculating  and  had  been  unfortunate.  Well, 
well,  she  could  still  help  him,  start  him  afresh. 

A  little  bead  of  perspiration  formed  itself  between 
Willy's  dark  straight  brows.  "  But  that  isn't  all," 
he  said  slowly,  conscious  of  his  uncle's  steady  re- 
gard and  of  the  renewed  apprehension  in  his 
mother's  face.  "  We  aren't  allowed  to  speculate 
and  I  would;  I  saw  a  splendid  opportunity  at  least 
I  thought  it  was  splendid " 

"  That  was  not  the  first  time,"  interposed  the 
Colonel. 

"  Oh  no,  but  before  that  I  had  only  dabbled,  this 
time  I — I  plunged." 

"But  if  it  isn't  allowed?" 

Willy  flicked  a  crumb  off  the  woolly  surface  of 
the  table-cloth  and  his  voice  sank.  "  I — I  invented 
a  bogus  client." 


TREASURE   TROVE  305 

"  Explain ! "  said  his  uncle,  in  a  voice  that  had 
grown  serious  and  masterful,  the  voice  of  a  colonel 
addressing  some  young  officer  who  is  in  fault. 

"  I  chose  a  name  out  of  the  Directory  and  gave 
the  address  of  a  small  paper  shop  and  I  speculated 
for  this  Mr.  Pybus.  Addison  did  not  suspect,  at 
least  not  then.  You  see  we  wrote  to  the  address 
given  and  I — and  I  went  to  the  shop  for  the  let- 
ters and  replied  as — as  Pybus.  At  first  things 
went  up  and  there  was  a  cheque  for  me — for  Pybus, 
and  I  thought  it  was  a  sure  thing  and  that  I'd  more 
than  double  my  capital.  But  I  had  miscalculated 
and  the  things  dropped  all  of  a  sudden  and  my  two 
thousand  was  gone." 

"  Well  ?  "  Colonel  Smart  was  no  longer  the  mere 
visitor.  He  had  thrust  his  feet  into  those  shoes 
which  his  brother  had  left  empty. 

"  Addison  had  not  been  as  blind  as  I  thought. 
He  had  had  inquiries  made  and  this  morning  he 
told  me  it  was  all  up,  that  he  had  found  me  out  and 
— and  that  he  had  closed  the  account." 

"And  that  means?" 

"  The  end  of  my  career  as  a  stockbroker." 

"  You  are  disgraced  ?  " 

Willy  nodded  unhappily.     "  I  shall  be  posted." 

Mrs.  Smart  struck  in  at  that.  "  Oh  William,  no! 
Surely  we  can  do  something?  There  is  money.  I 
have  never  spent  the  whole  of  my  income." 

"  What  made  you  do  it?  "  asked  the  Colonel.  He 
must  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  matter  before  he  could 


306  TREASURE   TROVE 

take  measures,  before  he  could  even  pronounce 
upon  it. 

Willy  considered.  "  I  so  wanted  to  make  money," 
he  said  at  last,  "  to  make  it  quickly.  I  hate  the  city 
and  the  talk  and  the  dirt,  and  I  wanted  to  get  away. 
I — oh,  you  must  know !  "  and  he  looked  at  his  uncle 
appealingly.  If  anyone  understood  it  would  be  this 
man  who  himself  had  gone  hither  and  thither  about 
the  earth,  who  had  seen  strange  things  and  done 
them.  "  I  kept  thinking  of  all  the  other  places, 
they  came  between  me  and  my  work  and  I  couldn't 
get  up  any  interest  in  it.  All  I  thought  of,  was  how 
to  get  away.  Our  offices  are  in  a  narrow  street, 
where  not  a  bit  of  sky  is  visible  and  where  the  smuts 
come  in  at  the  windows  in  their  thousands,  and 
Addison  said  we  were  lucky  to  get  them — the  of- 
fices. Lucky!  I  couldn't  see  it.  I  thought  of  the 
sunshine  and  the  green  grass  and  the  places  where 
a  man  can  live  a  man's  life  and  be  clean." 

"  But  he  must  take  a  pair  of  clean  hands  with 
him,"  said  the  Colonel,  and  a  rush  of  dull  red  suf- 
fused his  nephew's  skin. 

"  I  always  thought  you  were  too  young  to  have 
an  office  of  your  own,"  Mrs.  Smart  said.  Disaster 
had  led  her  back  to  a  discarded  opinion.  "  Addison 
is  a  dull  and  steady  young  man  who  would  be  sure 
to  get  on,  but  you  are  different." 

"  What  arrangements  have  you  made  ?  "  asked 
the  Colonel. 

"  I  am  to  meet  my  partner  and  his  father  to- 


TREASURE    TROVE  307 

morrow  morning.  They  do  not  want  to  be  hard 
on  me,  but  of  course  the  partnership  will  have  to 
be  dissolved  and  Addison  is  afraid  he  will  have  to 
bring  the  matter  before  the  committee.  The  firm 
cannot  be  allowed  to  suffer  for  my  misdeeds." 

"  Oh,  but  surely,  surely  it  can  be  hushed  up." 
The  god  of  Mrs.  Smart's  class  was  respectability, 
and  the  other  worshippers  must  not  know  that  her 
son  was  outcast  from  their  shrine.  "  If  I  find  the 
money " 

"  Hushed  up!  "  said  the  Colonel  bitterly.  "  That 
any  action  of  Willy's  should  need  hushing  up !  " 

Willy  held  his  peace,  he  had  admitted  his  guilt, 
he  had  even  explained  it  and  the  strain  of  the  last 
few  weeks  was  now  beginning  to  make  itself  felt. 
The  thing  was  done.  He  was  found  out  and  he 
wondered  dully  why  he  had  been  so  foolish  as  to 
go  beyond  the  regulations.  He  felt  extraordinarily 
tired  and  it  did  not  seem  to  matter  what  was  done 
to  him.  "  I  must  go  up  in  the  morning,"  he  said, 
and  remembered  it  would  be  the  last  time  he  would 
need  to  go.  Whatever  the  reason  of  his  freedom, 
he  was  glad  to  be  free. 

"  I  will  go  with  you,"  said  his  uncle,  "  and  we 
must  do  the  best  we  can." 

"Thank  you,  sir." 

The  Colonel  cleared  his  throat.  "  But  I  must 
own  that  I  am  disappointed  in  you,  you  have  not 
been  playing  a  straight  game.  By  the  Lord  Harry, 
sir,  it — it  wasn't  honest !  I  cannot  understand  how 


3o8  TREASURE   TROVE 

it  was  possible,  possible  for  you  to  have  done  such 
a  thing." 

Mrs.  Smart  looked  up  quickly,  making  as  if  she 
would  speak.  She  had  remembered  her  mother's 
words : — "  There's  a  something  about  the  shape  of 
your  head,  Willy  has  it  too,  that  reminds  me  of 
your  father."  Willy  had  inherited  from  her  father 
that  carelessness  in  money  matters  which  had  been 
his  ruin,  but  she?  What  had  she  done?  Eva  had 
said  that  the  money  from  her  trove  was  unlucky, 
but  why  ?  Could  it  be  that  findings  were  not  neces- 
sarily keepings? 

Conviction  of  sin  to  Minty  Smart,  meant  a  feel- 
ing on  her  part  that  the  powers  above,  justifiably 
or  not,  were  displeased  with  her.  She  now  won- 
dered if  by  any  possibility  they  had  not  been  willing 
that  she  should  keep  the  jewels.  They  had  been  her 
jewels,  found  on  her  mantel-shelf,  belonging  to  no 
ostensible  person,  as  much  a  discovery  on  her  part 
as  the  finding  of  gold  on  No  Man's  Land !  But  no, 
after  all,  it  had  not  been  quite  the  same.  Though 
she  had  been  ignorant  of  their  owner's  name  the 
'jewels  had  belonged  to  somebody,  to  some  other 
woman.  Could  it  be  that  the  powers  watching  over 
that  other  woman  as  well  as  over  herself,  had 
weighed  her  action  in  the  great  balances  and  found 
it  wanting?  And  had  Eva,  speaking  carelessly,  ut- 
tered a  truth?  Had  the  jewels,  having  been  wrong- 
fully acquired,  been  allowed  by  Omniscience  to  bring 


TREASURE   TROVE  309 

misfortune  in  their  train?  The  proceeds  of  their 
sale  had  been  divided  unequally  between  her  children 
and  first  Eva  and  now  Willy  had  suffered.  Was 
it,  as  a  consequence?  Mrs.  Smart  shrewd  though 
she  was,  could  hardly  be  called  a  student  of  char- 
acter. She  did  not  see  that  her  son  and  son-in-law's 
misfortunes  were  the  outcome  of  their  natures,  of 
inherent  qualities  which  the  keeping  of  the  jewels 
could  not  in  any  way  have  affected.  No,  trouble 
had  come,  to  her  mind  unaccountable  trouble,  and 
she  looked  about  her  for  the  possible  cause  and  look- 
ing, found  it  in  her  trove — the  jewels  were  un- 
lucky ! 

But  she  had  meant  well !  She  had  thought  her- 
self very  wise  and  clever,  for  by  keeping  the  little 
package  she  had  been  enabled  to  dower  her  daugh- 
ter and  start  her  son  in  business.  She  had  congrat- 
ulated herself  on  her  smartness  in  outwitting  the 
burglar  and  disposing  of  the  stones;  but  that  what 
she  was  doing  had  a  moral  aspect  had  never  even 
occurred  to  her.  She  now  saw  that  she  had  had  no 
more  right  to  keep  the  stones  than  the  burglar  had. 
Her  quickened  conscience  assured  her  that  her  ac- 
tion was  what  the  Rev.  J.  J.  Jorrocks,  speaking 
from  the  pulpit,  would  have  termed  dishonest.  The 
five  thousand  pounds  was  money  come  by  dishon- 
estly and  she,  Araminta  Smart,  had  been  guilty  of 
a  dishonest  deed!  She  wondered  in  a  troubled 
fashion  why  this  had  not  occurred  to  her  sooner. 


310  TREASURE   TROVE 

Years  had  come  and  gone  since  she  had  disposed  of 
the  jewels,  but  this  was  the  first  time  that  she  had, 
ever  so  faintly,  regretted  what  she  had  done. 

And  Willy?  His  mother  felt  that  Willy  had 
probably  been  as  well-meaning  as  she,  that  it  had 
not  occurred  to  him  until  too  late  that  what  he  was 
doing  was  dishonourable.  He  would  think,  if  he 
thought  at  all,  that  the  end, — that  doubling  of  his 
capital,  justified  the  means. 

Colonel  Smart  could  not  understand  how  it  had 
been  possible  for  Willy  to  have  done  such  a  thing, 
but  Minty  knew.  "  He  did  not  stop  to  consider," 
she  said.  "  He  saw  the  opportunity  and  he  seized 
it.  It  was  only  afterwards  when — when  it  didn't 
turn  out  a  success  that  he  saw  he  hadn't  been — been 
'  playing  a  straight  game.' ' 

The  young  fellow  turned  his  heavy  eyes  upon  her 
with  a  feeling  of  gratitude.  "  That  was  it,  Mother, 
I  thought  so  much  about  the  money  I  was  going  to 
make,  that  I  never  paused  to  consider — well — other 
things.  I  was  outwitting  Addison  for  my  own  ends, 
and  I  thought  of  how  to  do  it  and  the  risks  and 
not  whether  it  was  right  or  wrong.  But  now  that 
Uncle  William  puts  it  like  this,  of  course  I  see  that 
having  your  own  way,  and  getting  the  better  of 
other  people  and  successfully  keeping  it  dark,  isn't 
all  that  there  is  to  a  deal." 

"  That  you  should  have  needed  me  to  point  it 
out,"  said  the  Colonel  disgustedly. 

"  I've  had  my  lesson,"  pleaded  his  nephew.     "  I 


TREASURE    TROVE  311 

shall  run  straight  in  future."  He  was  weariedly 
certain  that  the  honour  of  business-men  was  not  his 
honour,  but  he  did  not  like  to  say  so.  Because  he 
had  been  a  member  of  the  Stock  Exchange  he  should 
have  obeyed  its  regulations,  that  certainly;  and  be- 
cause he  had  not  done  so  they  would  cast  him  out — 
out  into  the  sunshine!  What  did  their  opinion  of 
him  matter,  when  he  would  never  see  any  one  of 
them  again? 

"  Well,"  said  Colonel  Smart  and  he  spoke  more 
leniently  "  at  least  you  have  a  lifetime  in  which  to 
make  amends." 

"  Amends  ?  "  echoed  the  mother. 

"  Do  you  think  then  that  he  should  get  off  scot- 
free?"  " 

Mrs.  Smart  remembered  her  father's  fate.  For 
seven  years  he  had  been  shut  away  from  his  kind 
and  afterward  when  the  prison  gates  had  opened  to 
let  him  out,  who  of  all  his  friends  had  come  for- 
ward? Not  one.  He  had  been  allowed  to  disap- 
pear; and  though  his  wife  had  been  faithful,  when 
he  died,  his  passing  had  been  unregretted,  unre- 
gretted  even  by  her.  So  had  he  made  amends.  Must 
Willy  suffer  in  like  measure?  Must  she? 

"  Oh,  surely,"  she  faltered,  "  the  loss  of  his 
money,  the  fact  that  he  has  failed  in  his  business, 
will  be  punishment  enough  ?  " 

"Who  knows?"  said  the  Colonel  grimly,  and 
long  after  she  was  in  bed  that  night  the  phrase, 
pregnant  with  doom,  echoed  in  her  ears.  Who 


312  TREASURE   TROVE 

knew  what  might  not  be  in  store  for  them  all,  for 
her  foolish  son,  her  unfortunate  daughter  and  for 
herself,  the  mother  who  by  her  misdoing  had 
brought  these  misfortunes  upon  the  innocent  heads 
of  her  children. 


THE  Willy  who  came  down  to  breakfast  on  the  fol- 
lowing morning  was  a  different  being  to  the  weary 
and  dispirited  youth  who  had  dragged  himself  to 
bed.  His  uncle  bent  on  rubbing  up  a  tarnished 
escutcheon  ate  little,  but  Willy  had  the  hearty  appe- 
tite which  is  supposed  to  go  with  a  good  conscience 
and  made  up  for  his  poor  performance  on  the  pre- 
ceding evening.  The  ordeal  of  an  interview  with 
the  Addisons  lay  before  him,  but  beyond  it  he  could 
see  the  shining  faces  of  innumerable  free  and  glori- 
ous days.  On  the  brink  of  a  new  life  why  should 
he  trouble  himself  about  one  nearly  at  an  end  ?  This 
indifference  may  have  been  due  to  some  lack  in  the 
young  man's  nature  and  indeed  he  kept  it  under 
and  behaved  as  one  brought  low,  but  it  was  genuine. 
Liberty  had  been  a  primal  need  and  no  matter  how 
it  had  been  come  by,  liberty  was  now  his.  In  spite 
of  the  quag  in  which  he  stood  therefore,  his  heart 
rejoiced  within  him  and  was  glad. 

The  day  proved  hot,  the  Addisons  obdurate  and 
the  Colonel  had  his  work  cut  out  to  make  them  take 
his  point  of  view.  But  a  silver  tongue  backed  by 
a  golden  purse  can  work  wonders;  and  in  the  end 
matters  were  satisfactorily  arranged.  Colonel 
Smart  had  been  strongly  affected  by  his  nephew's 
conduct  and  would  find  it  very  hard  to  forgive,  for 

313 


314  TREASURE   TROVE 

the  young  man  was  his  heir  as  well  as  his  name- 
sake ;  but  once  he  was  certain  that  all  fear  of  public 
disgrace  was  at  an  end,  and  he  began  to  take  a  more 
comfortable  if  not  more  lenient  view  of  the  affair. 
"  And  now,"  said  he,  after  relating  to  the  anxious 
mother  all  that  had  been  said  and  done,  "  we  must 
be  thinking  of  the  future." 

He  glanced  at  his  nephew,  but  Willy's  face  was 
unresponsive.  He  knew  what  he  would  do,  but  he 
was  by  no  means  certain  what  his  mother  and  uncle 
would  think  of  his  plans,  or  rather  of  his  lack  of 
them. 

"  What  do  you  advise  ?  "  asked  Mrs.  Smart.  She 
was  grateful  to  her  brother-in-law  for  his  kind  of- 
fices, desirous  indeed  of  offering  a  little  womanly 
flattery,  of  burning  a  little  incense  of  adulation. 

"  Oh  advice,  the  boy  must  choose  for  himself. 
But  I've  been  considering,  and  there  are  one  or  two 
openings  I  know  of  that  might  suit  him " 

The  young  man  was  anxious  not  to  seem  un- 
gracious. "Where?"  said  he.  His  uncle  was 
really  very  kind,  but  it  would  not  make  any  differ- 
ence. He  must  go  his  own  way. 

"  I  have  a  friend  Penn-keeping  in  Jamaica  who 
is  always  lamenting  the  difficulty  he  finds  in  get- 
ting a  white  manager." 

"Penn-keeping?"  said  Mrs.  Smart,  with  the 
curiosity  of  the  woman  who  does  not  read  and  is 
yet  alive  to  the  interesting  ways  of  the  foreigner. 

"  Stock-raising   on    large   tracts    of   land,"    ex- 


TREASURE   TROVE  315 

plained  the  Colonel.  "  Merriman  would  teach  Willy 
his  business  and  eventually  make  him  manager.  It's 
a  good,  healthy,  manly  life  and  a  fine  country." 

Willy  showed  a  sudden  knowledge  of  the  sub- 
ject. "  I  suppose  the  men  he  usually  gets  have  a 
touch  of  colour !  " 

"  Generally.    Ah,  you've  read  about  it  ?  " 

"  I  read  everything  about  other  countries  that  I 
can  get  hold  of,"  said  the  young  man  modestly. 

"  If  you  don't  care  about  that  I  know  a  man  in 
Rhodesia  who  is  running  a  store  in  connection  with 
his  farm.  He  wants  a  trustworthy  young  fellow 
to  help  him,  one  whom  he  could  presently  take  into 
partnership." 

"  You  have  friends  everywhere,"  said  Mrs. 
Smart  admiringly.  She  had  an  uneasy  suspicion 
that  this  incalculable  son  of  hers  was  about  to  spring 
some  strange  notion  upon  them,  something  of  which 
her  brother-in-law  must  disapprove.  A  man  who  is 
under  a  cloud  cannot  choose,  he  must  take  what  is 
offered  and  to  her  mind  both  Penn-keeping  and 
farming  sounded  respectable,  and  therefore  desir- 
able occupations.  But  Willy  had  not  jumped  at 
them.  He  was  sitting  very  still  and  he  was  smiling. 
Mrs.  Smart  thought  it  an  ominous  smile.  "  But 
Willy  does  not  know  anything  about  stock,"  she 
ventured.  "  And  these  men,  would  they  be  willing 
to  take  a  man  who  had  his  business  to  learn?  " 

"  He'd  pick  it  up  fast  enough."  He  turned  to 
his  nephew.  "  Well,  my  boy  ?  " 


3i6  TREASURE   TROVE 

Willy  looked  from  his  uncle  to  his  mother,  these 
good  and  kindly  people,  both  of  whom  wished  him 
well,  but  whose  well  was  not  his  well !  They  would 
sell  him  into  bondage  and  think  they  were  doing 
him  a  good  turn,  for  they  wore  the  chains  of  con- 
ventionality as  ornaments,  while  he  saw  them  as 
what  they  were — chains.  He  had  broken  out  of 
one  cage  and  all  they  thought  of  was  to  find  him 
another,  but  they  were  so  kindly,  so  well-meaning, 
that  he  was  chary  of  speaking  his  mind. 

"  I've  been  a  lot  of  trouble  to  you  sir,  and  I'm 
most  grateful  for  your  offers  but " 

"  Oh,  if  you  have  something  else  in  view." 

"  No — but  I  do  not  want  to  tie  myself  down." 

"You  must  do  something." 

Willy  laid  his  right  hand,  palm  downwards  on 
the  table,  a  square,  blunt-fingered  hand,  very  strong 
and  capable.  "  This  will  keep  me,"  he  said.  "  I 
need  not  think  of  openings  and  opportunities  as 
long  as  I  have  my  health  and  this." 

"  I'm  afraid  I  don't  quite  follow  you,"  said  the 
soldier  bluffly. 

The  young  man  glanced  at  the  sideboard.  On  it 
stood  a  biscuit  box,  in  the  shape  of  a  globe,  of  a 
globe  patterned  over  with  the  continents  and  oceans 
of  the  earth.  Willy  had  brought  it  home  at  Christ- 
mas, and  when  it  was  empty  had  expressed  a  wish 
to  have  it  kept  between  the  copper  urns  that  graced 
the  top.  Many  a  time  his  mother  coming  unexpect- 
edly into  the  room  had  found  him  turning  it  over  in 


TREASURE   TROVE  317 

his  hands.  She  was  not  surprised  when  he  got  up 
and  fetching  it,  planted  it  before  him  on  the  serge 
table-cloth. 

"  Look !  "  he  said.  "  Such  a  big  world,  such  a 
number  of  places,  of  islands,  of  countries  and  I've 
lived  in  Eastham  all  my  life."  The  flint-grey  eyes 
darkened  till  they  might  have  been  mistaken  for 
black.  "  Here — in  Eastham !  I  did  not  know  what 
I  wanted  or  at  least  I  knew  but  couldn't  put  a  name 
to  it  and  I  thought  if  I  could  only  make  money  I 
should  be  able  to  get  away.  I  couldn't  make  the 
money  and  I  won't  try  to  again  but  I — I  must  go." 
There  was  a  desperate  insistence  in  his  voice.  This 
was  Willy  in  earnest,  so  much  in  earnest  that  he 
was  showing  a  boyish  terror  of  coercion.  His  uncle 
and  his  mother  had  been  in  authority  over  him  and 
it  was  as  if  he  begged  them  to  forget  it,  not  to  in- 
sist upon  their  rights. 

"But  where  will  you  go?"  asked  the  Colonel 
kindly.  He  had  been  a  little  hurt  that  the  young 
fellow  should  not  have  consulted  him  about  the 
future  but  he  began  to  see  there  was  no  question  of 
a  billet. 

Willy  answered  him  with  a  feverish  eagerness. 
"  Where  ?  All  over  the  world.  I  will  see  every- 
thing  and  go  everywhere.  I  will  go  up  one  road 
and  down  another  and  they  shall  be  all  new,  all 
roads  I  have  never  seen  before.  And  when  I  come 
to  the  end  of  the  roads  I  will  make  paths  for  my- 
self." 


318  TREASURE   TROVE 

"  But  your  livelihood?  "  cried  his  mother.  Was 
this  son  of  hers,  this  son  whom  she  had  reared  to 
such  respectabilities  to  become  a  sort  of  tramp  ?  Was 
this  to  be  the  result  of  his  suburban  training,  his 
grammar  school  teaching,  his  years  in  the  city? 

"  Oh,  I  can  work,"  said  Willy,  his  face  bright- 
ening. "  Wherever  I  am  I  can  work."  And  his 
mother  saw  that  he  had  definitely  declined  to  climb 
the  stiff  ladder  of  financial  success.  She  was  at 
once  bewildered  and  troubled;  and  in  her  bewilder- 
ment she  failed  to  grasp  how  this  revelation  of  his 
real  self  would  affect  her. 

"  The  Sir  Jocelyn,"  said  Colonel  Smart,  "  who 
died  in  1830,  my  great-grandfather,  married  a 
gypsy.  She  was  said  to  have  been  fond  of  him  and 
of  her  children,  and  yet — she  left  them.  She  left 
them  and  went  back  to  her  own  people." 

"Ah!"  said  Willy  hoarsely. 

"  I  don't  know  what  the  Smarts  were  like  before 
her  day,  but  they  have  been  restless  enough  since." 

"And  she,"  said  Willy  as  if  it  explained  many 
things,  "  she  was  my  ancestress." 

"  It  appears  so." 

"  But  you  too,  uncle,  you  have  felt  as  I  do." 

"  To  a  certain  extent.  Of  course  it  was  the  go- 
fever  sent  me  into  the  service  and  thanks  to  that 
I've  been  about  the  world  a  bit,  oh  yes  a  goodish 
bit."  But  though  he  spoke  cheerily,  in  his  heart  he 
envied  the  youth  who  had  yet  to  go.  He  had  travel- 
led as  a  soldier  and  a  gentleman,  but  the  boy  would 


TREASURE    TROVE  319 

follow  his  instinct  and  go  as  a  mere  nomad.  Class- 
feeling  had  ruled  the  Colonel;  and  yet  at  times  the 
longing  to  go  out  as  Willy  would  do,  a  man  among 
other  men,  but  nameless,  pelfless,  untrammelled  by 
any  demand  of  civilisation,  had  been  almost  too 
strong  for  him.  However,  the  leaves  of  sixty  years 
had  fallen  and  he  was  still  behind  the  hedge.  He 
had  never  had  the  courage  to  step  out  into  the 
open,  to  hold  to  his  individuality  at  the  cost — of 
what?  Of  all  that  made,  that  would  make  his  old 
age  comfortable. 

"  But  I  don't  understand,"  complained  Mrs. 
Smart,  "  I  don't  see  what  it  all  means." 

"  I  shall  come  back,  Mother,"  said  Willy,  still  as 
one  who  deprecates  the  raising  of  obstacles,  and  his 
words  sowed  in  her  heart  the  knowledge  that  he 
was  going  from  her.  A  fierce  pain  sprang  from  the 
seed. 

"  You  will  come  back  ?  "  she  echoed  blankly. 

"  Every  year  or  two." 

But  she  had  had  the  daily  joy  of  him  for  five 
and  twenty  years.  "  Oh  Willy!  "  she  cried  aghast. 

The  tenderness  with  which  he  had  always  re- 
garded her  softened  his  voice,  but  did  not  melt  the 
underlying  firmness.  "  I  must  go,  mater,  I  am 
stifled  here,  I  must  go." 

She  ran  to  him  and  put  restraining  arms  about 
him,  as  she  had  done  when  he  was  a  little  venture- 
some child.  "  Oh  no !  "  she  cried  pitifully.  "  Oh 
no!" 


320  TREASURE   TROVE 

The  boy  looked  across  at  his  uncle.  The  urgings 
of  the  nature  which  he  had  inherited,  had  grown 
too  strong  for  him  to  dream  of  battling  with  them. 
He  must  go  with  the  tide,  must  go  in  spite  of  his 
mother's  cry;  but  because  of  it,  would  take  a  sore 
heart  with  him  into  the  wilds. 

"  We  mustn't  interfere,"  said  the  old  Colonel 
gently,  and  when  he  saw  her  face,  was  thankful  that 
he  had  no  wife,  no  children.  He  had  always  felt 
that  Minty  was  younger  than  he ;  he  knew  now  that 
they  were  of  the  same  generation,  that  their  day  was 
over,  their  work  at  an  end. 

"  Of  course  not,"  sobbed  the  woman,  "  I — I  won't 
interfere,  I  never  have,  I  won't  now,  but — oh,  if 
I  only  understood ! "  She  went  slowly,  her  eyes 
blinded  by  tears,  back  to  her  chair.  Why  did  Willy 
want  to  go  ?  Was  his  home  not  to  his  liking  ?  That 
comfort  of  the  middle  classes,  of  which  the  rich 
for  all  their  luxury  know  nothing,  had  been  his,  the 
gift  of  her  constant  oversight  and  capacity.  What 
more  could  she  have  done?  What  did  he  want? 

"  I  suppose  you've  no  idea,"  said  the  Colonel, 
distressed  by  the  poignancy  of  Minty's  resignation 
and  anxious  to  get  back  to  the  concrete.  "  I  sup- 
pose you've  no  idea  where  you  will  make  a  start  ?  " 

Willy  looked  past  him,  through  the  open  win- 
dow and  out  at  the  road.  The  dun-coloured  dust  of 
the  sunny  August  day  lay  thick  on  its  unrolled  rib- 
bon. Wheelmarks,  hoofmarks,  footmarks  in  multi- 
tudinous confusion  broke  up  the  pale  surface;  and 


TREASURE   TROVE  321 

though  the  highway  was  at  that  evening  hour  almost 
deserted,  he  could  yet  see  the  throngs  which,  since 
the  road  was  made,  had  streamed  along  its  path.  It 
was  there  that  he  would  make  a  start,  there  that 
he  would  stand  one  morning,  and  at  the  tossing  of 
a  coin  turn  to  the  right  or  to  the  left.  Mrs.  Smart 
saw  his  eager  glance,  and  though  as  far  as  ever 
from  understanding,  she  interpreted  it  aright.  Her 
apprehensions  showed  her  the  alert  figure  at  the 
gate,  the  easy  choice  of  route,  and  those  long,  strid- 
ing steps,  each  one  of  which  would  carry  this  in- 
comprehensible child  of  hers  further  and  further 
from  her. 

"  Ah  no,"  said  the  Colonel,  who  had  also  seen 
the  glance,  "  we'll  give  you  a  start." 

"  It  will  be  all  the  same,"  said  Willy.  "  No,  not 
quite,  though.  It  will  mean  that  I  shall  get  to  some 
one  place  quicker  than  I  could  otherwise  have  hoped 
to,  and  life  is  not  too  long."  He  turned  the  globe 
over  and  over  in  his  hands.  "  Well,  then — Santa 
Fe  de  Bogota,"  and  he  smiled  apologetically,  "  the 
name  has  always  had  an  absurd  fascination  for 
me." 

"  Bogota  ?  "  repeated  his  uncle,  unable  for  the 
moment  to  place  it.  "  Oh  yes,  from  Southampton 
to  Colon,  or  perhaps  Trinidad,  and  then  up  the 
Magdalena.  Humph!  as  good  a  spot  as  another. 
I've  been  there — I  think  I  told  you  about  it  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Willy  eagerly. 

"  We  were  a  long  time  getting  up  the  river,  for 


322  TREASURE   TROVE 

the  steamer  spent  most  of  her  time  resting  on  the 
sandbanks,  and  her  weariness  not  having  been  ar- 
ranged for  by  the  commissariat,  we  were  thinner 
when  we  arrived  than  when  we  started.  It's  a  gold, 
silver,  and  emerald  country.  Should  be  pastoral, 
too,  but  isn't.  Government  too  uncertain." 

"  But,"  said  his  puzzled  mother,  "  you  will  get 
to  this  outlandish  place,  and  what  will  you  do 
then?" 

"  Oh  prospect,  or  fight,  or  dig.  I  shall  not  do 
more  work  than  I  can  help."  He  smiled,  knowing 
how  much  he  would  astonish  her,  and  enjoying  it. 
"  Work,"  he  said  deliberately,  "  is  a  curse." 

"  Work  a  curse  ?  "  repeated  his  mother,  accept- 
ing the  challenge  with  a  sense  that  here  at  last  she 
was  on  her  own  ground,  she  who  was  first  and  last 
a  worker.  Work  a  curse?  To  her  it  had  always 
been  a  blessing. 

"  Well,  mater,  '  in  the  sweat  of  thy  brow  shalt 
thou  eat  bread ' ;  it's  the  curse  of  Adam." 

"Ah,  but  that  was  said  a  very  long  time  ago," 
she  answered  slowly,  "  and  it's  come  to  be  a  bless- 
ing. Besides,  if  you  don't  work,  you  can't  make 
money,  and  everybody  wants  to  do  that." 

"  I  don't,"  said  her  son  emphatically.  "  Mother, 
you  like  all  the  things  other  people  do,  to  you  suc- 
cess means  a  big  house  and  nice  things  to  eat  and 
lots  of  servants,  eh  ?  " 

She  nodded  wistfully,  for  she  knew  now  that 
these  things  would  never  be  Willy's.  "  You  and 


TREASURE    TROVE  323 

your  father,"  she  said  almost  inaudibly,  "  after  all, 
you  are  alike  in  some  things." 

"  Yes,  the  dad  must  have  been  a  disappointment 
to  you.  I'm  sorry  that  I  haven't  turned  out  better, 
but  there  it  is,  you  can't  change  an  oak  into  a  wal- 
nut because  you  happen  to  prefer  that  kind  of 
tree." 

"  No,"  said  Mrs.  Smart,  but  she  wished  the  age 
of  miracles  were  not  past.  For  the  nonce  she  must 
accept  a  state  of  affairs  alien  to  her  and  painful,  but 
she  would  pray  that  this  goat  might  presently  be 
changed  into  a  sheep.  It  was  with  a  distinct  feel- 
ing of  relief  that  she  remembered  she  might  besiege 
the  courts  of  heaven.  Night  and  morning  she  would 
offer  her  petitions.  Remembering  the  parable  of  the 
unjust  judge,  and  in  the  hope  and  expectation  of 
being  given  a  new  Willy,  she  determined  to  be 
insistent  in  prayer. 

"  Ah  dearie,"  she  said,  with  a  pathetic  note  in 
her  voice,  "  when  you  get  to  those  strange,  outland- 
ish places,  don't  forget  that  I  shall  be  here,  that  I 
shall  be  always  waiting,  looking  out  for  you,  ex- 
pecting you." 

And  before  both  men  rose  that  pitiful  figure  of 
the  waiting  woman,  of  her  chair  set  summer  and 
winter  by  the  window,  of  the  snow  of  time  falling 
flake  by  flake,  until  its  white  storm  hid  her  figure 
from  view — until  there  was  only  the  empty  chair. 


IF  Willy  Smart  could  have  done  as  he  wished,  he 
would,  as  he  expressed  it,  "  have  got  on  the  back 
of  a  tramp  and  gone  west,"  would  have  worked  his 
way  out  as  a  seaman,  and  thus  have  begun  that  ac- 
quiring of  many  trades  which  is  incidental  to  the  life 
of  the  born  wanderer.  But  Colonel  Smart,  with  a 
twinge  of  conscience,  for  Willy  had  been  his  heir, 
and  now  it  seemed  as  if  little  Jocelyn  Flowerdew 
would  have  the  bulk  of  the  money,  had  decided 
otherwise;  and  a  berth  on  one  of  the  Royal  Mail 
steamers  had  been  booked.  So  Willy,  going  out  to 
leave  footprints  on  untrodden  ways,  began  his 
travels  as  a  first-class  passenger  on  the  Tagus;  and 
his  mother  went  down  to  Southampton  to  see  him 
off  and  wish  him  all  the  things  that  he  least  de- 
sired. 

The  ship  began  to  move  slowly  down  South- 
ampton Water,  and  as  the  space  of  blue  sea  widened 
between  herself  and  her  son,  the  tears,  restrained 
all  day,  began  to  slip  one  after  the  other  down  Mrs. 
Smart's  cheeks.  They  blurred  for  her  the  tall  grey 
figure  leaning  on  the  bulwarks  and  looking  back; 
and  yet  they  helped  her  to  regain  her  self-control. 
The  streets  were  not  a  fitting  place  for  the  indul- 
gence of  grief,  nor  her  age  one  at  which  people 

324 


TREASURE   TROVE  325 

usually  gave  way  to  their  feelings.  She  felt 
ashamed  as  she  wiped  them  hurriedly  away,  striv- 
ing through  their  haze  to  catch  one  more  glimpse  of 
Willy — Willy,  motionless  amid  a  foolish  waving  of 
handkerchiefs;  Willy,  with  the  sun  shining  on  the 
black  ripple  of  his  hair;  Willy,  her  only  son. 

The  man  who  came  back  would  not  be  the  youth, 
callow  and  tender,  who  had  bidden  her  farewell. 
Her  son,  her  first-born,  the  child  she  had  reared 
and  trained,  whose  thoughts  she  believed  she  had 
read,  and  to  whose  body  she  had  certainly  minis- 
tered, was  going,  going  across  the  mountainous 
seas,  out  into  the  unknown.  Alas,  poor  mother, 
what  are  the  pangs  when  "  a  man  is  born  into  the 
world  "  to  those  others  that  yield  him  to  a  new 
universe  of  which  you  know  nothing? 

The  ship  passed  slowly  on  between  the  flat  green 
shores,  and  Mrs.  Smart,  convinced  that  she  could 
no  longer  distinguish  her  son  among  the  ranks  of 
his  fellow-passengers,  turned  quietly  away.  She 
was  not  one  to  insist  upon  her  griefs,  and  though 
at  the  moment  she  found  it  a  little  difficult  to  think 
of  anything  else,  it  would  not  be  long  before  she 
would  be  looking  forward  to  his  return,  before  she 
would  be  writing  him  long  letters  full  of  the  aroma 
of  domesticity  and  weaving  about  him  a  golden 
tissue  of  fresh  ambitions. 

She  walked  slowly  back  to  the  station,  her  feet 
falling  absent-mindedly  upon  the  unfamiliar  road, 
and  her  mind  clearly  but  sorrowfully  reviewing  the 


326  TREASURE   TROVE 

events  of  the  last  few  months.  She  had  come  to 
believe  that  the  troubles  which  assailed  her  children 
were  due  to  her.  She  had  not  said  so ;  nothing  short 
of  inquisitorial  torture  indeed,  could  have  dragged 
from  her  such  an  admission,  but  she  believed  it. 
Nor  had  she  been  easily  convinced.  Being  so  emi- 
nently respectable,  of  such  irreproachable  conduct, 
the  voice  of  conscience  had  an  unfamiliar  sound. 
Mrs.  Smart  had  sought  to  hush  down  its  first  utter- 
ances and  impute  Flowerdew's  failure  to  other 
causes ;  but  Willy's  troubles  had  been  crushing,  and 
Colonel  Smart's  assertion  that  people  cannot  do 
wrong  and  repent,  but  must  also  make  amends,  over- 
whelming. Unwilling  as  she  was  to  admit  it  even 
to  herself,  events  had  cruelly  convinced  her  that 
she  had  had  no  right  to  keep  the  jewels,  no  right 
to  turn  them  into  money,  no  right  to  give  that 
money  to  Eva  and  Willy.  And  because  they  had 
had  the  five  thousand  pounds,  upon  them  had  fallen 
the  vengeance  of  heaven.  Ah  no,  not  quite  that. 
It  had  fallen  upon  them  because  only  thus  could 
she  be  reached.  She  did  not  question  the  justice 
which  in  order  to  punish  her  had  struck  at  the 
children,  and  that  because  she  seemed  to  herself — • 
as  we  all  do — of  a  peculiar  importance.  "  The  sins 
of  the  fathers  shall  be  visited  upon  the  children," 
came  home  to  her,  not  as  a  curious  injustice,  but  as 
a  deep  and  awful  truth.  It  never  occurred  to  Mrs. 
Smart  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  forces  that  had 
evolved  her.  She  did  not  question,  she  accepted. 


TREASURE    TROVE  327 

Shall  not  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  do  right  ?  That 
her  children  knew  nothing  of  the  jewels,  had  had 
no  voice  in  their  disposal,  would  indeed  in  all  prob- 
ability have  tried  to  return  them,  did  not  strike  her 
as  a  reason  for  their  being  spared.  As  far  as  Mrs. 
Smart  could  determine,  neither  human  nor  divine 
law  was  based  upon  abstract  justice;  but  she  under- 
stood that  certain  laws  were  made,  and  that  if  you 
offended  against  them,  you  were  punished,  and  it 
seemed  more  important  that  the  guilty  should  be 
punished  than  that  the  innocent  should  escape. 

Difficult  as  it  was  to  believe,  it  was  none  the  less 
true  that  it  was  she  and  not  some  inferior  creature 
who  had  been  guilty  of  an  infringement  of  these 
laws!  Though  she  had  always  been  willing,  when 
decorously  seated  in  her  pew,  with  her  feet  on  a 
red  hassock  and  her  prayer-book  and  hymnal  laid 
out  before  her,  to  acknowledge  herself  a  sinner,  a 
miserable  sinner,  nothing  would  have  surprised  her 
more  than  for  anyone  to  have  assumed  her  sinful  in 
her  private  capacity.  For  one  thing,  she  knew  bet- 
ter. Moral  turpitude  and  she,  had  not  even  a  bow- 
ing acquaintance.  No  one  did  their  duty  as  wife, 
mother  and  housekeeper  more  thoroughly  than  she, 
and  being  fully  aware  of  this,  she  had  always  had 
the  comforting  if  pharisaical  conviction  that  if  any- 
body deserved  a  heavenly  mansion,  it  was  she.  A 
sinner?  Nonsense!  she  was  a  good  woman;  not  a 
saint,  oh  no,  but  a  really  good  woman. 

As  Mrs.  Smart  believed  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 


328  TREASURE   TROVE 

exemplar  of  all  that  was  good  and  holy,  had,  by 
dying  a  painful  death,  redeemed  the  world,  it  was 
only  in  keeping  with  her  creed  that  the  innocent 
should  suffer  for  the  guilty.  But  to  her  there  was 
a  wide  difference  between  the  Christ  who  had  of- 
fered himself  and  these  others  who  had  had  no 
choice  in  the  matter.  She  had  accepted  his  sacri- 
fice with  equanimity,  professing  herself  grateful 
when  in  church,  but  otherwise  rarely  thinking  about 
it ;  but  the  sacrifice  of  her  children,  so  near,  so  dear, 
so  precious — oh,  it  was  different  altogether.  In 
her  new  role  of  convicted  sinner,  Minty  Smart  shiv- 
ered and  was  afraid.  So  much  had  already  hap- 
pened, so  much  more  might  come  to  pass.  She  was 
willing  enough,  poor  soul,  to  make  amends — if  she 
could. 

If  she  could  have  given  back  the  jewels  she  would 
have  hastened  to  do  so,  but  they  were  gone,  gone 
too  were  the  five  thousand  pounds  which  they  had 
bought.  Besides  even  if  she  had  had  the  money, 
to  whom  could  she  have  sent  it?  The  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer? 

"  But  that  is  what  I  must  do,"  she  said  to  her- 
self as  she  walked  down  the  platform  toward  the 
train.  "  I  must  pay  it  back.  In  some  way,  to  a 
charity  or  a  hospital  or  something,  I  must  pay  it 
back." 

She  thought  she  would  do  so  unostentatiously, 
for  she  wished  to  draw  heavenly  and  not  earthly  at- 
tention to  her  proceedings;  and  then  she  began  to 


TREASURE   TROVE  329 

wonder  how  it  would  be  possible  for  her  to  obtain 
so  great  a  sum,  for  she  felt  that  it  would  hardly 
be  making  restitution  unless  with  the  labour  of 
hands  and  head,  she  earned  it.  Moreover,  although 
she  had  been  thrifty  and  had  managed  to  put  by  a 
good  deal  of  money,  she  had  always  looked  upon 
these  savings  as  the  property  of  her  children.  She 
had  brought  disaster  upon  them,  but  that  was 
enough;  she  would  not  rob  them. 

She  had  a  first-class  return,  but  instinctively  she 
walked  towards  the  cheerful  third-class  carriages. 
Of  all  ways  of  wasting  money,  Mrs.  Smart  had 
least  patience  with  that  which  paid  more  for  trav- 
elling than  the  lowest  possible.  The  greater  com- 
fort, cleanliness  and  seclusion  of  the  first-class 
compartments  did  not  appeal  to  her,  for  she  liked 
company,  a  baby  or  two,  and  the  possibility  of  a 
chat.  Having  on  this  occasion  a  first-class  ticket, 
however,  her  thrifty  mind  led  her  to  make  use  of  it, 
and  she  changed  hastily  from  the  compartment  she 
had  selected  to  the  nearest  blue-cushioned  first.  So 
hasty,  indeed,  was  her  entry  that  she  stumbled  and 
nearly  fell  over  the  legs  of  a  travelling  companion ; 
and  in  some  confusion  and  with  many  apologies, 
seated  herself  on  the  opposite  side,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible from  him. 

It  being  a  warm  day  towards  the  end  of  August, 
Mrs.  Smart  was  wearing  her  coolest  dress,  a  dark 
tussore,  severely  plain  but  lightened,  as  far  as  the 
bodice  was  concerned,  by  a  vest  of  white  embroid- 


330  TREASURE   TROVE 

ered  silk.  Her  hat  of  a  broad  Tuscan  straw  was 
wreathed  with  gauze  of  a  lighter  shade,  and  she 
carried  a  cheap,  dark  parasol.  Forty-eight  was  she, 
and  the  curves  of  her  fine  figure  bore  witness  to  it ; 
but  her  eye  was  clear  and  the  firm  flesh  of  cheek  and 
hand  spoke  of  abstemious  living  and  a  kind  diges- 
tion; and  the  only  other  occupant  of  the  compart- 
ment into  which  she  had  stumbled,  looked  at  her 
with  the  admiration  of  the  man  who  has  seen  many 
types  and  has  learnt  to  discriminate.  He  was  a 
small,  thin  man  with  a  rosy  skin  and  eyes  which  were 
exceptionally  bright  and  clear;  and  as  Mrs.  Smart 
looked  across  the  carriage,  she  was  amused  to  find 
herself  thinking  of  him  as  a  pretty  girl.  He  had 
met  her  before,  but  was  not  aware  of  it,  for  his 
work  brought  him  into  contact  with  innumerable 
fresh  faces,  and  all  humanity  had  come,  conse- 
quently, to  wear  a  familiar  look.  To  Mrs.  Smart, 
however,  a  face  and  figure  once  seen  was  generally 
graven  lightly  but  definitely  on  her  memory.  She 
was  seldom  in  the  society  of  strangers,  she  did  not 
often  make  a  new  acquaintance,  and  as  she  sat, 
breathing  deeply  after  her  rush  up  the  platform,  she 
wondered  to  find  that  though  she  could  not  put  a 
name  to  him,  the  face  and  figure  of  her  companion 
seemed  startlingly  familiar.  She  groped  among  her 
memories.  When  had  she  seen  that  broad  white 
brow,  that  contradictory  chin  and  narrow  lips  ?  Not 
at  Eastham,  not  at  Morton  House,  not  at  Ashwater. 
Then  where? 


TREASURE   TROVE  331 

Mrs.  Smart  was  not  a  novel  reader,  and  she  had 
seen  the  morning  paper,  so  with  hands  loose  in  her 
lap,  she  sat  looking  out  of  the  window,  a  picture  of 
sedate  maturity;  and  being  very  tired,  for  emotion 
is  exhausting,  she  presently  nodded  off  to  sleep. 
The  train  stopping  at  Winchester  awakened  her, 
and  it  was  then  that  she  recognised  her  fellow- 
traveller.  He  had  signalled  to  a  boy  with  tea,  and 
idly  watching  him,  she  saw  the  long  acquisitive  fin- 
gers touch  the  cup  tentatively,  as  if  to  gauge  the 
heat  of  the  contained  liquid. 

She  had  seen  those  sensitive  fingers  touch  other 
things,  touch  them  in  exactly  the  same  way,  and  she 
had  a  sudden  vision  of  a  slim  man  standing  by  the 
mantel-shelf  in  her  bedroom  and  touching  very 
lightly  a  half-opened  Swiss  box.  Her  fellow-trav- 
eller was  the  man  who  had  left  the  jewels,  those 
unlucky,  those  accursed,  those  exquisite  stones,  in 
her  house. 

She  looked  at  him  with  an  awakening  of  interest, 
of  which  so  sensitive  a  creature  as  Tharp  could  not 
remain  unconscious.  He  did  not  know  who  the 
woman  was,  though  her  face  was  vaguely  familiar ; 
but  he  saw  that  her  glance  was  friendly.  He  sup- 
posed, therefore,  that  she  must  be  one  of  the  innu- 
merable people  with  whom  as  a  reporter  he  was 
daily  being  brought  into  contact ;  that  he  was  recog- 
nised in  his  secondary  capacity  of  burglar  never  en- 
tered his  head. 

"  You  look  as  if  you   thought  you  knew  me, 


332  TREASURE    TROVE 

ma'am,"  he  said  amiably.  He  was  socially  inclined, 
and  to-day  it  would  please  him  better  to  talk  than 
to  read  the  commonplace  story  of  adventure  which 
he  had  bought  at  the  Cowes  bookstall. 

"  Well,"  said  Mrs.  Smart,  as  pleased  as  he  at  the 
prospect  of  a  chat,  "  I  do  and  I  do  not.  I've  met 
you  before,  but  I  don't  know  your  name." 

It  was  a  clever  cast,  but  the  fish  did  not  rise. 
"  Was  I  reporting  in  your  neighbourhood  ? "  he 
asked. 

A  grim  smile  curled  the  corners  of  her  lips.  "  Re- 
porting ?  "  she  said.  "  You  don't  mean  to  say  you 
are  a  reporter  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I've  been  most  things  in  my  time,"  he  re- 
plied with  airy  vagueness.  "  Then  you  don't  know 
where  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  you  ?  " 

Mrs.  Smart's  smile  broadened.  "  But  indeed  I 
do,"  she  said,  and  leant  forward  that  her  words 
might  come  with  greater  force.  "  It  was  Christ- 
mas Day,  two  and  a  half  years  ago,  or  perhaps  I 
should  say  Christmas  night,  and  you  were  after 
some  jewellery.  We  met " — her  smile  had  parted 
the  lips  over  her  broad,  good-natured  teeth  and  was 
shortening  the  whole  heavy  face — "  we  met  in  my; 
bedroom." 

For  a  moment,  while  his  mind  at  racing  pace 
dealt  with  the  situation,  Tom  Tharp  looked  blankly 
before  him.  She  had  no  proof  that  he  was  the  man 
she  proclaimed  him  to  be,  and  if  he  denied  it,  he 
would  silence  though  he  might  not  convince  her. 


TREASURE   TROVE  333 

On  the  other  hand,  the  unsolved  problem  of  long 
ago  still  lay  in  one  of  his  mental  pigeon-holes,  and 
the  opportunity  was  unique.  His  instinct  told  him 
that  the  woman  was  friendly,  and,  after  all,  he  need 
not  admit  more  than  he  chose.  He  sighed,  and  in 
drawing  the  longer  breath  made  himself  cough,  and 
it  was  some  minutes  before  he  could  speak. 

"You  seem  in  rather  a  poor  way,"  Mrs.  Smart 
said,  her  pleasure  in  the  little  shock  which  she  had 
given  him  vanishing.  He  did  not  look  well,  the 
extreme  delicacy  of  his  skin,  the  hollow  cheeks  and 
temples,  the  bright  blue  eyes  and  vivacious  manner, 
were  all  ominous  of  decay;  and  consumption  was 
too  common  a  disease  for  her  not  to  recognise  the 
signs  of  it. 

"  I've  just  come  back  from  Ventnor,"  he  told  her. 
"  Been  there  for  the  open-air  cure." 

"  You  don't  say  so  ?  "  It  was  some  time  since 
she  had  discovered  that  burglars  were  only  men; 
she  now  learnt  that  they  were  no  more  than  mortal. 
"  Did  it  do  you  any  good  ?  " 

"  Oh  yes,"  he  answered,  with  that  hopefulness 
which  is  one  of  the  signs  of  his  complaint.  "  It's 
a  slow  business,  of  course,  but  I'm  better  than  I 
was,  much  better.  A  winter  in  the  south  of  France 
and  I  shall  be  my  own  man  again.  It  was  the  late 
nights  and  broken  sleep  and  being  out  in  all 
weathers  that  did  it.  I  mean,"  he  added,  catching 
her  eye  and  smiling  wryly,  "  the  being  out  in  all 
weathers,  reporting." 


334  TREASURE   TROVE 

"  For  the  other  business,  you  could  please  your- 
self and  choose  your  weather." 

"  And  I  did,"  he  said,  admitting,  because  he  saw 
no  further  reason  for  caution,  that  her  recognition 
of  him  had  not  been  a  mistake. 

"  When  you  touched  that  cup  of  tea  I  knew  it 
was  you,"  she  said,  pleased  at  her  perspicacity. 
"  You  see,  I'd  watched  you  nearly  all  the  time  you 
were  in  my  room." 

"Had  you?"  He  gave  this  statement  the  con- 
sideration it  deserved.  "  Then  I  was  right,"  he 
said  at  last,  "  and  you  had  the  packet  ?  " 

"  Oh  yes,  I  had  it,"  Mrs.  Smart  said  casually. 

The  other  laughed  and  coughed.  "  Well,  of  all 
the  cool  customers,"  he  spluttered,  rubbing  his  hands 
together.  They  were  dry  hands  and  the  skin  of 
them  emitted  a  faint  sound,  as  of  snake-scales  rasp- 
ing over  one  another. 

"A  good  deal  has  happened  to  me  since  then," 
murmured  Mrs.  Smart  apologetically.  Her  trove 
had  once  bulked  largely  in  her  mind,  but  now  she 
only  thought  of  it  with  distaste.  "  Somehow  I 
took  it  for  granted  that  you  knew." 

"  I  only  suspected." 

It  was  Mrs.  Smart's  turn  to  sigli.  "I've  just 
been  to  Southampton  to  see  my  son  off.  He's  going 
to  South  America,  and  I  don't  know  when  he'll  be 
back." 

Tharp  admitted  the  relevance  of  the  remark.  If 
he  had  just  had  to  say  good-bye  to  little  Tom  and 


TREASURE   TROVE  335 

George,  he  knew  how  he  would  be  feeling  about 
such  lesser  matters  as  jewels.  But  his  separation 
from  Florence  and  the  boys  was  almost  at  an  end. 
He  was  going  home.  "Ah,  then  of  course  other 
things  wouldn't  seem  to  you  of  much  importance !  " 
he  said  sympathetically. 

Mrs.  Smart  was  moved  to  tell  him  what  she  had 
done  and  why.  "  I  put  the  necklace  and  that,  into  a 
little  box  on  the  mantel-piece  and  left  it  half  open. 
I  thought  you  would  come  back." 

Tharp  was  surprised.  "  That  was  cute  of  you," 
he  allowed,  "  but  for  the  life  of  me  I  can't  see  why 
you  kept  them." 

"  I  couldn't  wear  them,"  Mrs.  Smart  said  simply, 
"  but  I  could  sell  them,  and  I  did." 

She  began  to  rise  in  his  estimation.  "  But  you 
wouldn't  know  where  to  take  them." 

"  I  loosened  the  stones  until  I  got  them  all  out, 
and  then  my  brother-in-law  took  them  to  a  man  in 
the  city,  and  he  gave  me  five  thousand  pounds  for 
them." 

"  Five  thousand  pounds  ?    Whew !  " 

"  Of  course  I  invented  a  story,  and  I  suppose  I 
oughtn't  to  have  done  that,  but  at  the  time  it  seemed 
necessary." 

"  And  they  believed  you  ?  " 

"  Oh  yes."  She  looked  at  him  gravely,  and  he 
saw  that  that  would  follow.  Her  manner  was  so 
convincing. 

"  But  five  thou'/'  he  said  ingenuously.    "  .Why,  I 


336  TREASURE   TROVE 

didn't  hope  to  make  more'n  a  third  of  that.  It's  a 
little  fortune.  Really  you  have  been  lucky." 

The  word  was  unfortunate,  for  it  reminded  her 
that  lucky  was  just  what  she  had  not  been.  She 
had  enjoyed  astonishing  her  whilom  antagonist,  but 
now  her  pleasant  motherly  face  lost  its  smile. 
"  Lucky  ?  "  she  said  slowly.  "  I  don't  know  about 
that.  The  money  never  did  me  any  good,  and  now 
it's  gone." 

"  You  can't  have  your  cake  and  eat  it." 

"  Cake  ?  It's  been  an  unwholesome  cake  to  me 
and  mine." 

"What  d'youmean?" 

"  Well,  everything  I've  done  with  that  five  thou- 
sand pounds  has  turned  out  badly." 

"  I  shouldn't  think  anything  of  that." 

"Wouldn't  you?  And  yet "  She  paused, 

for  she  had  been  on  the  verge  of  pointing  out  to 
him  that  though  still  a  young  man  the  ground  on 
which  he  stood  was  crumbling  and  before  long  must 
give  him  that  last  refuge  of  poor  humanity,  an 
earthen  bed.  In  one  way  or  another,  thought  she, 
we  are  punished  for  our  misdeeds.  But  it  did  not 
occur  to  her  that  this  waif,  the  child  of  consump- 
tive parents,  and  born  with  a  consumptive  tendency, 
must,  even  had  his  life  been  that  of  a  "plaster 
saint,"  have  contracted  the  disease. 

"Well?" 

"  I  was  thinking  that  you  don't  look  as  if  you'd 
had  any  too  good  a  time." 


TREASURE    TROVE  337 

"  I've  been  seedy  this  last  year  or  two,  but  I'm 
better  now.  I've  had  three  months  at  Ventnor,  and 
I've  put  on  weight.  The  night  sweats  bother  me  a 
bit,  but  I  can  get  about;  and  that's  more'n  I  could 
do  when  I  went  down.  I'm  all  right,"  and  in  proof 
of  it  he  began  to  cough. 

Mrs.  Smart  knew  illness  when  she  saw  it,  and  his 
jaunty  words  did  not  deceive  her.  "  We  don't  look 
at  things  in  the  same  light,"  she  said  placidly.  "  I 
took  the  packet  because  I  wanted  to  see  what  was 
inside  it ;  and  when  I  knew,  I  kept  it — well,  I  really 
believe  it  was  partly  because  you  wanted  it.  I  used 
to  be  a  daring  sort  of  girl,  and  when  you  don't  know 
what's  going  to  happen,  things  are  more  interesting. 
I  thought  I'd  like  to  see  whether  you'd  come  back 
and  what  you  would  do.  It  somehow  never  oc- 
curred to  me  that  there  was  any  right  or  wrong 
about  the  matter.  But,  of  course,  there  is." 

"  Right  or  wrong ! "  said  the  man  with  a  shrug 
of  his  thin  shoulders.  "  But  that's  rot.  It  was 
just  which  is  the  more  fly.  And  you  won.  Upon 
my  sam,  I  don't  grudge  it  to  you,  though  five 
thou'!" 

He  had  saved  and  invested  more  thousands 
than  five,  had  in  truth  a  comfortable  sum  in- 
vested in  gilt-edged  securities,  but  he  could  have 
done  with  the  proceeds  of  those  jewels.  His  respect 
for  Mrs.  Smart  was  steadily  on  the  increase,  for 
even  Florence,  the  loyal  and  generous,  had  never 
proved  herself  cleverer  than  he. 


338  TREASURE   TROVE 

"  Well,"  said  she,  "  all  I  can  say  is  that  I  wish 
I'd  left  it  alone." 

"What's  done's  done." 

"  It  can  be  undone,"  said  the  other  stubbornly. 

"How?" 

"  I  can  give  back  the  money." 

His  respect  for  her  began  to  waver.  "  Oh  come," 
he  said,  "  that  would  be  silly." 

"  I  think  you  must  have  been  badly  brought  up," 
she  returned  severely.  She  might  amuse  herself 
with  him,  but  in  the  end  the  lawlessness  of  his  out- 
look would  irritate  her.  "  If  you  hadn't  you'd 
know  that  when  you  do  wrong  you  have  to  make 
amends." 

"  I've  never  cared  whether  a  thing  was  right  or 
wrong,"  averred  Tharp.  "  I've  pleased  myself  and 
done  as  I  liked,  and  it's  panned  out  all  right." 

But  to  Mrs.  Smart,  looking  from  his  sunken  tem- 
ples to  the  peculiar  brilliancy  of  his  complexion,  it 
seemed  very  far  from  having  "  panned  out  all 
right." 

"  Besides,"  he  said  suddenly,  "  you've  spent  the 
money,  so  how  can  you  give  it  back  ?  " 

The  good  woman's  dignity  abated.  "  I  haven't 
thought  out  the  details,  but  I  suppose  I  shall  have 
to  earn  it.  I  don't  quite  know  how  ?  " 

"  You  are  going  to  earn  five  thousand  pounds  ?  " 

"  I  like  work,"  she  said,  misunderstanding  him. 
"  It  helps  to  pass  the  time." 

"  But  five  thousand  pounds !  " 


TREASURE    TROVE  339 

"  It  does  seem  a  lot,"  and  she  was  silent,  con- 
templating a  future  out  of  which  she  was  going  to 
squeeze  sovereign  by  sovereign,  a  sackful  of  golden 
coins,  a  future  that  would  be  filled  with  labour  and 
in  which  she  would  not  have  time  to  remember  that 
she  was  lonely. 

Tharp  had  been  studying  her.  Never  before  had 
he  met  so  extraordinary  a  person,  at  once  so  clever 
and  so  foolish.  "  But  you  don't  know  whose  jewels 
they  were." 

She  looked  up  eagerly.     "You  could  tell  me?" 

"  I  could."  He  ruminated,  as  disinclined  to  part 
with  his  information  as  with  any  other  possession. 
"  It  couldn't  do  me  any  harm  if  I  were  to  tell  you," 
he  said  at  last.  "  Well,  here  goes.  I  got  'em  at 
Long  Reedham.  They  belonged  to  Lady  Dudley 
Bodger." 

Mrs.  Smart  knew  the  name.  "  Lady  Bodger  of 
Tulsey  Park." 

"  Yes,  Lady  Dudley  Bodger,  Tulsey  Park,  Long 
Reedham.  D'you  know  I  was  the  man  sent  down  to 
report  that  burglary?  Me — and  I'd  done  it.  Wasn't 
it  a  joke?  I  enjoyed  myself  that  day." 

But  she  hardly  heard.  "  I'm  very  much  obliged 
to  you,"  she  said,  pursuing  her  own  train  of  thought. 
"  Of  course  I'd  sooner  the  lady  had  the  money 
than  just  a  hospital  or  some  charity.  After  all,  they 
were  her  things.  Lady  Bodger,  Tulsey  Park,  Long 
Reedham.  I  shan't  forget.  Besides,  I've  seen  her. 
She  comes  to  open  bazaars  at  Eastham.  To  think 


340  TREASURE    TROVE 

those  beautiful  stones  belonged  to  an  old  creature 
like  that;  somehow  I'd  always  pictured  them  on  a 
young  girl !  "  She  had  seen  the  lady  in  question 
on  a  platform  and  under  a  bright  light,  she  had 
marked  her  wrinkles,  her  wig,  and  her  decrepitude, 
and  she  could  not  imagine  the  sapphires  about  that 
scraggy  brown  throat,  or  the  tiara  on  that  pile  of 
chestnut  curls.  Mrs.  Smart  had  a  wholesome  ob- 
jection to  fine  feathers  on  an  old  bird ;  she  felt  that 
age  should  be  restful,  white-haired,  quiet-spoken, 
that  the  hurry  of  life  was  for  the  young.  To  her 
Lady  Dudley  Bodger,  who  had  been  a  beauty  and 
was  unable  to  forget  it,  was  a  thorough-going  ex- 
ample of  those  upper  classes  whom  from  the  bottom 
of  her  plebeian  soul  she  contemned.  And  to  think 
it  was  she  who  had  been  the  owner  of  the  jewels! 

The  train  was  running  into  the  haze  of  London, 
and  at  Vauxhall  Tharp  got  out.  The  green  "  Ele- 
phant and  Castle  "  bus  would  convey  him  nearly  to 
his  destination,  his  baggage  having  preceded  him 
as  "  Advance  Luggage." 

"  Well,  good-afternoon,"  said  he.  "  Glad  to  have 
met  you.  You've  given  me  a  jolly  good  story  to 
tell  against  myself,"  and  Mrs.  Smart  wondered  to 
whom  he  would  tell  it.  She  looked  out  of  the  win- 
dow and  watched  him  walking  away.  There  are 
seldom  many  people  on  the  platforms  at  Vauxhall, 
and  she  could  easily  keep  him  in  sight.  A  well- 
dressed  young  woman,  tall,  fair,  but  with  somewhat 
opulent  curves,  who  had  been  sitting  between  two 


TREASURE    TROVE  341 

little  boys  on  a  bench,  rose  as  he  approached.  He 
greeted  the  woman  affectionately,  but  his  face  was 
turned  toward  the  children,  and  it  was  evident  that 
the  mother,  willing  it  should  be  so,  was  calling  his 
attention  to  this  and  that  detail  concerning  them. 
They  were  good-looking,  curly-pated  rogues,  as  de- 
lighted to  come  and  meet  their  father  as  he  to  see 
them ;  and  as  the  train  started  again,  the  little  fam- 
ily began  to  stroll  happily  away  along  the  platform 
on  its  way  to  the  bus  and  Camberwell.  As  Mrs. 
Smart  watched  them  a  strange  hunger  swept  into 
her  heart,  for  she,  too,  had  once  had  a  laddie  leap- 
ing and  dancing  at  her  side,  the  laddie  who  had 
shot  up  into  unfamiliar  manhood,  and  going,  had 
left  her  behind. 


FROM  Waterloo  Mrs.  Smart  drove  across  to  Vic- 
toria, where  a  leisurely  train  was  waiting  to  take 
her  down  to  Ashwater.  Trains  with  Eastham  as 
their  destination  were  always  in  a  hurry ;  their  sub- 
urb was  an  important  one,  only  half  an  hour's  jour- 
ney from  town,  and  they  must  shew  that  they  were 
as  bustling  and  up-to-date  as  the  smart  business 
men  they  carried.  But  with  Ashwater,  in  spite  of 
the  invading  army  of  red  bricks,  it  was  different. 
The  little,  rather  dirty  trains  lingered  in  a  siding, 
and  when  they  could  be  prevailed  upon  to  start,  went 
sauntering  by  pleasant  copses  and  sleepy  villages, 
until  allowed  to  pause  at  the  tiny  country  stations 
that  dotted  the  route. 

Mrs.  Smart  had  once  more  broken  her  word  to 
Tamsin ;  but  Eva  being  at  the  farm  and  able  to  keep 
an  eye  upon  things,  it  had  not  so  much  mattered, 
and  the  Cornishwoman  was  gone  off  to  Port  Isaac 
at  the  time  appointed.  Mrs.  Smart  wondered 
whether  she  would  be  at  Old  Meadow  Farm  when 
she  arrived.  For  she  was  not  returning  to  The 
Laurels,  at  least  not  yet,  not  until  she  felt  better 
able  to  face  its  ten  empty  rooms.  She  was  pre- 
eminently a  woman  who  looked  forward,  and 
though  she  had  only  so  lately  bidden  her  son  fare- 

342 


TREASURE   TROVE  343 

well,  she  was  already  thinking  of  little  Jocelyn  and 
the  solace  it  would  afford  her  to  fold  him  in  her 
arms.  He  already  gave  baby  promise  of  growing 
into  such  another  as  her  Willy,  even  to  the  ripple 
in  his  hair,  which  as  yet  was  of  that  light  tow  colour 
which  mothers  call  golden.  His  chirping  voice,  his 
little  dewy  lips,  his  rose-leaf  skin  were  so  many 
lures  to  draw  a  lonely  heart  to  the  farm,  and  Mrs. 
Smart  knew  he  would  bring  back  the  memories  and 
the  happiness  of  long  ago,  when  she  was  the  young 
mother  of  such  an  one. 

It  was  evening  before  the  sleepy  train  drew  up  at 
Ashwater,  and  Mrs.  Smart,  tired  after  her  day's 
travelling,  was  glad  to  see  that  Eva  had  brought 
the  old  pony  and  little  springless  cart  to  meet  her. 
She  was  not  careful  of  her  comfort,  and  the  bump- 
ing jiggity-jog  of  the  old-fashioned  conveyance 
would  not  seem  to  her  a  matter  for  complaint.  She 
was  so  thankful  not  to  have  to  walk! 

"  Well  dearie,"  she  said,  as  she  seated  herself 
beside  Mrs.  Flowerdew,  "  I  saw  him  off,  and  now 
I  shall  only  think  of  when  we  may  hope  to  have 
him  back.  After  all,  a  year  or  two's  knocking  about 
doesn't  hurt  a  man.  I've  no  doubt  that  in  the  long 
run  he'll  settle  down  all  the  more  thoroughly  for 
it." 

"  No  doubt,"  said  Eva  softly,  but  she  knew  the 
wild  bird  would  not  come  back  to  the  poultry  yard. 
Willy  had  gone  out  of  their  lives,  and  his  sister 
knew  it,  but  seeing  hope  as  transmuted  happiness 


344  TREASURE    TROVE 

she  was  merciful  to  her  mother's  blindness.  She 
would  leave  her  to  her  dreams,  those  dreams  which 
grow  fewer  as  we  grow  older,  fewer  and  more 
precious.  "  Tamsin  came  back  yesterday,"  she  said, 
as  they  turned  into  their  own  lane,  with  its  broad 
grass  ridings  and  narrow  strip  of  rutted  cartway, 
and  saw  the  white  glimmer  of  farmhouse  walls. 
"  She  has  made  up  her  mind  at  last." 

"  Yes  ?  "  said  Mrs.  Smart,  too  tired  to  feel  her 
usual  interest  in  the  concerns  of  others.  "  And 
what  will  she  do?  " 

"  That  she  is  waiting  to  tell  you.  To  all  my 
questions  it  is :  '  Ah  do  belong  to  tell  Miss  Minty 
first.'  But  I  fancy  she  means  to  marry  her  old 
sweetheart.  There's  a  sort  of  smirking  satisfaction 
about  her  that  I  have  noticed  in  other  brides;  and 
she  has  actually  bought  herself  a  tail  of  hair,  rather 
lighter  in  colour  than  her  own." 

"  It's  funny  to  me  how  she  can  be  bothered  to 
change  her  state,"  said  Mrs.  Smart,  as  they  turned 
in  at  the  big  gate  and  drove  towards  the  stable. 
"  A  farm  to  manage  or  a  man  to  look  after,  the 
one  seems  to  me  about  as  good  a  life  as  the  other." 

"But  Tamsin  doesn't  think  so.  There's  the 
charm  of  the  unknown  for  her  about  married  life." 

"  That's  it,  I  suppose,"  and  Mrs.  Smart  climbed 
down  over  the  shaft.  A  twinge  of  pain  in  her  back 
reminded  her  that  she  had  only  lately  recovered 
from  a  mild  attack  of  lumbago,  and,  thinking  of  it, 
she  hoped  she  would  not  have  a  rheumatic  old  age. 


TREASURE    TROVE  345 

Eva,  unharnessing  the  pony,  turned  him  loose,  and 
the  two  women  walked  towards  the  kitchen  garden. 

Suddenly  Eva's  soft  laugh  rang  out.  "  Oh, 
mother,  if  Tamsin  has  not  been  watering  the  herbs 
and  the  rows  of  lettuces !  " 

"  Well?  "  Mrs.  Smart  had  been  rejoicing  in  the 
scent  of  the  warm  damp  earth. 

"  But  she  hasn't  spared  so  much  as  a  bucket  for 
the  lilies  and  late  roses." 

Mrs.  Smart  smiled.  It  was  just  Tamsin,  Tam- 
sin with  her  eye  to  the  main  chance  and  her  care- 
lessness of  beauty;  and  there  at  the  kitchen  door, 
her  stumpy  figure  outlined  against  the  light  of  the 
lamp,  was  the  individual  in  question.  She  had 
heard  them  drive  in,  and  with  hand  above  her  eyes 
was  peering  through  the  soft  August  dusk  to  catch 
a  glimpse  of  them. 

"  Supper's  ready  this  long  time,"  she  said,  as  she 
shook  hands  with  Mrs.  Smart,  "  and  Ah  do  expect 
as  you're  fine  and  tired.  Had  a  weariful  day,  haven't 
'ee  ?  "  And  she  turned  back  into  the  long  raftered 
room. 

On  the  table  were  only  cheese,  bread,  and  rad- 
ishes, but  a  comforting  smell  of  broth  came  from 
the  direction  of  the  fire.  "  Ah've  sent  Susan  on 
home,"  continued  their  hostess,  as  with  the  ease  of 
one  born  to  labour  she  lifted  off  a  heavy  saucepan, 
"  for  Ah  do  want  to  tell  'ee  all  as  Ah've  a-done," 
and  in  a  minute  a  sheep's  head,  with  the  usual  ac- 
companiments of  turnips,  carrots,  onions  and  pearl 


346  TREASURE    TROVE 

barley,  was  steaming  on  a  large  dish  which  had 
been  standing  ready.  "  Sit  'ee  down,  my  dear  life," 
cried  Tamsin,  bustling  about  hospitably,  "  your  hat's 
no  matter.  Supper  first,  and  then  us  can  talk." 

Mrs.  Smart  slipped  into  the  chair  she  had  always 
occupied,  and  if  it  had  not  been  that  she  was  pro- 
moted to  knife,  fork  and  plate  instead  of  the  blue- 
banded  bowl,  could  have  imagined  she  was  still  a 
child.  As  long  as  she  could  remember,  a  trail  of 
ivy  had  grown  across  the  panes  of  the  upper  part 
of  the  window,  and  when  the  wind  blew,  had  tap- 
tapped  against  it  in  most  eerie  fashion.  Now  in  a 
slight  breeze  which  had  sprung  up  at  sundown  the 
stem,  white  against  the  glass,  was  tap-tapping  as  of 
old.  Mrs.  Smart  could  hardly  believe  that  thirty 
years  had  passed  since  the  days  when  she  had  sat 
with  her  mother  at  this  same  table  and  watched  the 
ivy.  With  what  silent  swiftness  the  years  had 
flown,  and  how  was  it  that  in  spite  of  all  her  expert 
ences  she  felt  no  older  ?  She  had  passed  the  line  of 
middle-age,  she  had  loved,  she  had  sorrowed  over 
new-made  graves,  she  had  seen  her  children  go  from 
her,  and  yet  she  carried  in  her  breast  the  heart  of  a 
girl.  Was  age  then  a  myth?  Did  the  body  come 
to  maturity,  halt  a  little,  and  then  slowly  fade,  leav- 
ing the  mind  young  and  fresh?  Had  her  mother 
at  seventy  felt  as  she  did  to-day?  It  was  not  often 
that  Minty  originated  a  thought,  and  when  she  did 
it  was  apt  to  perplex  and  trouble  her.  She  ate 


TREASURE    TROVE  347 

thankfully,  but  she  did  not  talk,  and  the  others  sup- 
posed her  silence  to  be  due  to  weariness. 

"Ah  shall  have  the  stock  vallyed,"  said  Tamsin 
suddenly,  and  Eva  emerged  from  a  dream  of  the 
future — of  when  Archie  should  have  come  home ! 

"  How  was  Captain  Jan  ?  "  asked  Mrs.  Smart, 
unable  to  follow  her  drift,  but  unwilling  to  quench 
the  little  spark  of  conversation. 

"  Braave,"  replied  his  sweetheart.  The  man  was 
a  little  wizened  fellow  all  wrinkles  and  leanness,  but 
with  a  spark  of  blue  light  shining  out  between  his 
scanty  eyelashes.  "  He  do  want  me  to  come  back 
afore  Xmas." 

"Well?" 

"  He  'oan't  wait  no  longer.  'Tes  a  pinchin' 
plaa.ce  for  me  to  be  in,  seein'  as  Ah  do  love  the  old 
farm  and  yet  Ah'd  like  fine  to  be  Mrs.  Honey. 
But  there  'tes,  Ah've  chose."  She  breathed  gustily, 
and  Eva  saw  that  it  was  not  so  much  the  man  as  the 
condition  which  attracted  her. 

"  You  are  going  back !  "  she  said,  more  as  an  as- 
sertion than  as  a  question.  At  Tamsin's  time  of 
life  it  was  really  rather  difficult  to  see  what  she 
wanted  with  a  husband. 

But  the  Cornishwoman  thought  differently;  and 
the  smirk  came  back  to  her  features  as  she  explained. 
"  My  sister  Sabina,  her  ain't  never  had  an  offer 
and  her  do  hate  as  Ah  should  be  thinking  of  gettin' 
married,  and  me  two  year  older'n  she.  Some  maids, 


348  TREASURE   TROVE 

now,  dunno  what  'tes,  but  them  can't  never  get  a 
chap."  She  looked  so  eminently  self-satisfied  that 
Mrs.  Flowerdew  would  have  liked  to  take  her  by 
her  bowed  shoulders  and  shake  her,  but  Minty  saw 
further  into  the  matter.  She  could  understand  the 
pride  of  the  old  maid  in  a  success  which,  if  belated, 
was  only  the  more  welcome,  and  to  her  Tamsin's 
marriage  seemed  neither  absurd  nor  reprehensible. 
Though  old  and  withered,  she  was  yet  entering  upon 
her  woman's  kingdom.  Youth  had  gone,  and  come- 
liness had  followed  it,  but  now,  though  it  was  late, 
so  late,  her  money,  earned  by  the  sweat  of  her  brow, 
was  buying  her  what  she  had  always  secretly  longed 
for,  the  status  of  married  woman.  "  Oh,  iss,"  she 
said.  "  Ah'm  goin'  back.  Ah've  pramussed." 

"  And  the  farm  ?  "  asked  Eva. 

"  It  do  belong  to  Miss  Minty.  Her  can  do  as  her 
pleases  wi't." 

"  Oh,  mother'll  let  it." 

"  That  would  be  a  pity,"  Mrs.  Smart  interposed 
thoughtfully,  for  here  surely  was  the  opportunity  of 
which  she  had  been  in  search.  "  No  ordinary  per- 
son would  make  it  pay.  You  have  to  know  the  land 
and  what  it  can  do." 

"  Iss,  fay." 

"  Now  I  could  make  something  of  it." 

"  Oh,  but  mother,"  cried  Eva  in  amazement, 
"  you  wouldn't  like  to  give  up  The  Laurels  and 
come  here?" 

Mrs.  Smart  looked  down  at  the  coarse  clean  cloth. 


TREASURE   TROVE  349 

"  The  Laurels  ?  "  she  said  slowly.  "  Richard's  gone, 
you're  gone,  Willy's  gone,  what  is  The  Laurels  to 
me?  An  empty  house.  I'd  be  happier  here." 

Mrs.  Flowerdew  felt  that  she  foad  been  tactless. 
"But  the  work,"  she  murmured;  "there's  a  great 
deal  to  do." 

And  Mrs.  Smart  repeated  what  she  had  said  to 
Tharp.  "  I  like  work,  it  helps  to  pass  the  time." 
She  turned  to  Tamsin.  "  We  will  have  the  stock 
valued,"  she  said  resolutely,  "  and  I'll  buy  it  of 
you."  The  thought  had  slipped  into  her  mind  that 
thus  with  clean  hands  could  she  earn  money,  and 
if  her  mother  had  been  able  to  save,  so  too,  could 
she.  Whether  or  no  she  ever  earned  the  whole  five 
thousand  pounds  did  not  seem  to  matter,  the  point 
was  that  by  working  hard  and  putting  by  what  she 
could,  she  would  be  proving  her  anxiety  to  atone. 
She  would  send  Lady  Dudley  Bodger  the  few  stones 
— diamond,  amethyst,  pearl,  and  opal — which  she 
had  retained,  also  their  crushed  settings ;  and  in  the 
course  of  time  this  first  package  should  be  followed 
by  others,  others  full  of  coin,  the  coin  which  she 
had  earned  and  saved.  Tamsin's  prospective  mar- 
riage was  shewing  her  the  way  out  of  her  difficulties 
and  she  blessed  Captain  Honey,  strange  old  sea-far- 
ing man,  with  the  blue  eyes  which  had  seen  through 
a  brick  wall  and  into  a  fat  banking  account ;  for  as 
soon  as  she  was  at  work,  she  would  be  able  to  hope 
that  better  times  were  in  store  for  her  and  hers,  that 
Archie  Flowerdew  might  become  temperate  and 


350  TREASURE   TROVE 

Willy  be  given  back  to  suburban  respectabilities. 
Since  her  son  had  insisted  upon  his  right  to  go  pen- 
niless into  a  world  where  those  who  do  not  work 
cannot  expect  to  eat,  she  had  thought  of  him  as 
hungry,  as  reduced  to  sleeping  in  the  open,  under 
the  blue  vault  of  heaven,  out — oh,  horrible  thought ! 
— out  of  his  bed.  She  felt  now  that  if  she  laboured 
to  make  amends,  tending  the  farm  creatures,  driv- 
ing shrewd  bargains,  living  austerely,  there  would 
be  no  fear  of  this,  no  fear  of  his  going  hungry,  no 
fear  of  his  sleeping  out. 

For  a  time  the  three  women  stirred  their  simmer- 
ing thoughts  in  silence.  Eva  had  been  taken  aback 
by  her  mother's  sudden  decision,  but  as  she  consid- 
ered, she  saw  the  wisdom  of  the  plan.  Why  should 
her  mother  stay  in  Eastham  and  spend  her  time  in 
keeping  clean  an  empty  house  when  here  was  work 
waiting  to  be  done  ?  Tamsin  had  increased  the  busi- 
ness, had  bought  Leghorns  as  well  as  Wyandottes, 
and  had  started  turkeys;  but  her  mother  need  not 
do  so  much.  She  had  enough  to  live  on,  and  if  she 
did  not  make  by  the  farm,  neither  would  she  be 
likely  to  lose,  and  it  would  be  a  distraction.  Eva 
was  painfully  conscious  of  the  emptiness  of  her 
mother's  life,  she  did  not  know  how  great  a  com- 
fort she  and  little  Jocelyn  were  and  how  that  inter- 
est would  grow.  Mrs.  Smart  no  longer  wanted 
children  in  her  house,  except  as  visitors ;  she  would 
be  content  to  see  her  grandson  at  intervals,  to  love 
him  at  a  distance ;  but  this  Eva  did  not  understand. 


TREASURE   TROVE  351 

A  sudden  thought  struck  her,  and  she  looked  across 
at  her  mother.  "  I  was  coming  to  you  in  October," 
she  said  slowly. 

Tamsin  understood.  "Ah  pramussed  Ah'd  go 
afore  Christmas,"  she  said,  "  and  so  Ah  will — the 
day  afore,  and  no  suner.  There  be  the  turkeys  and 
the  geese  and  ducks  and  the  fowls  to  see  to.  Ah've 
sold'n  and  Ah  must  fat'n.  Ah  rackon  Ah've  my 
work  cut  out  for  the  neist  month  or  two  if  Ah'm 
to  please  all  they  customers."  She  paused,  looking 
back.  "  And  Ah  did  think  to  buy  a  two-three  yowes 
this  autumn  and  see  what  Ah  cud  do  wi'  early  lamb. 
There  does  be  good  feed,  short  sweet  stuff  in  the 
hill  meadow." 

Mrs.  Smart  was  willing  to  pick  up  any  hints  she 
could.  "  So  I've  always  thought,"  she  averred. 

"  Good  feed  and  a  lew  hedge  agen  the  winds," 
continued  Tamsin.  "A  two-three  yowes  'ud  do 
well  there.  Ah  was  thinkin',  too,  of  that  slip  o' 
land  'tother  side  of  the  li'l  river.  They  do  say  as 
'tes  for  sale.  If  us  had  that,  the  farm  'ud  be  more 
vallyable,  and  there'd  be  a  longer  bit  o'  river  for 
they  ducks  and  geese.  But  what's  the  good  of  talk- 
ing," she  concluded  disconsolately.  "  Ah  won't 
never  buy  that  slip  o'  land  now." 

"  You  want  me  to  take  over  the  farm  in  De- 
cember, after  you  have  disposed  of  the  Christmas 
stock?" 

"  Iss." 

"  That  will  suit  me  perfectly.    Let's  see,  there'll 


352  TREASURE   TROVE 

be  the  early  broods  to  look  after  then — oh,  but  of 
course  we  can  talk  over  all  that  later." 

"  That  egg-cubator,"  said  Tamsin  eagerly, 
"have  proved  a  perfect  god-send.  Ah'm  glad  Ah 
bought'n." 

"  Yes,  it  saves  trouble." 

"  Aw,  an*  life,  tho'  they  do  say  as  its  chicks  be- 
long to  be  whisht." 

"  What  will  you  do  with  The  Laurels,  mother?  " 
interposed  Eva,  who  was  not  interested  in  early 
broods  and  incubators. 

"Let  it,  dearie.  It  is  a  good  house  and  has  a 
nice  piece  of  garden,  and  should  let  well." 

Mrs.  Flowerdew,  for  no  reason  in  particular,  was 
privately  averse  to  its  passing  into  the  hands  of 
strangers,  but  she  did  not  protest.  During  the  last 
six  months  change  had  been  the  order  of  her  fam- 
ily's existence,  and  though  like  most  women  she 
craved  stability,  she  felt  the  uselessness  of  rebellion. 
*  You  will  live  here,  then,"  she  said,  "  just  as 
Granny  did.  How  curious  that  you  should  take  up 
her  work ;  it  will  be  almost  as  if  you  were  Granny 
herself  come  back." 

Mrs.  Smart  looked  across  at  the  blooming  girl,  as 
her  mother  had  looked  across  at  her.  Life  was  re- 
peating itself.  Eva  had  all  which  she  had  had,  and 
in  the  course  of  time  might  come  to  as  lonely  'a 
middle-age.  How  strange!  She  had  thought  the 
busy  fulness  of  earlier  days  must  last  her  to  the  end, 
but  as  the  hours  had  flown,  the  leaves  had  fallen, 


TREASURE   TROVE  353 

and  she  stood  stark  at  last  The  leaves  had  fallen, 
but  the  sap  was  still  in  the  tree  and  the  forester  had 
not  yet  come  to  blaze  it.  But  presently  she  would 
hear  the  menace  of  his  step,  she  would  fall  like  the 
others  of  her  generation,  and  green  things  grow- 
ing over  the  place  where  she  had  stood,  she  would 
be  forgotten,  her  pleasant  shade,  her  lofty  crown  of 
leaves,  her  good  hard  wood  all  forgotten,  forgotten 
as  utterly  as  if  they  had  never  been. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

LITTLE  Jocelyn  had  been  born  on  the  8th  of  Octo- 
ber, but  his  sister  did  not  make  her  appearance  until 
the  last  day  of  that  month.  She  was  a  small  baby, 
fat  and  round,  with  vague  dark  eyes  and  a  wistful 
expression,  an  expression  so  like  what  her  mother 
had  come  to  wear  that  Mrs.  Smart  remarked  upon  it. 

"Like  me  is  she?"  said  the  young  mother. 
"Like  what  I  was  as  a  baby?" 

"  Well  yes,"  said  the  proud  grandmother,  "  same 
dark  hair  and  neat  features,  but  you  were  bigger." 

"  Ah  Mother,  you've  forgotten." 

Mrs.  Smart  did  not  tell  her  that  there  are  some 
things  which  a  woman  never  forgets.  She  had  a 
perfect  recollection  of  Eva's  birth,  of  the  little  fool- 
ish, seeking  face  which  she  had  thought  so  beauti- 
ful, so  adorable.  She  remembered  the  pride  with 
which,  when  Richard  came  back  from  town,  she 
had  laid  his  daughter  in  his  arms.  And  now  that 
daughter  was  a  mother,  but  with  no  husband  in 
whose  arms  to  lay  her  child. 

Eva  too,  thought  of  the  absent,  yearning  after 
him,  longing  for  his  return.  Her  face,  which  should 
have  been  bright  and  careless,  wore  a  look  of  ex- 

354 


TREASURE   TROVE  355 

pectation;  and  as  she  lay  silent  in  the  white  bed 
of  her  girlhood,  she  was  not  so  much  resting  as  lis- 
tening. In  the  afternoon,  after  the  young  mother 
had  slept,  Mrs.  Johnson  stole  up  to  see  the  new- 
comer. In  spite  of  the  girl's  Philistinism,  she  had 
grown  to  like  her  sister-in-law,  and  when  she  heard 
the  baby  was  come,  she  had  dragged  herself  off  her 
sofa  and  motored  down  to  welcome  it. 

"  It's  not  a  Flowerdew,"  she  said,  and  was  glad 
of  it.  Nerves  and  ill-health,  perhaps  even  a  crooked 
spine  like  her  own,  might  have  been  its  heritage  if 
it  had  taken  after  its  father's  family. 

"  Archie  asked  me  to  give  him  a  little  girl  with 
my  eyes,"  answered  its  mother  shyly.  "  And  he 
wanted  her  to  be  called  Mary." 

"  Mary  ?  Oh  I'm  glad.  I  always  used  to  think 
I  had  such  a  pretty  name — Mary  Flowerdew.  And 
to  have  changed  it  for  Johnson ! " 

Mrs.  Smart,  coming  in  with  a  bowl  of  gruel — 
she  believed  in  the  old-fashioned  milk-making  stuff 
— drove  the  intruder  out ;  but  she  went  with  her  to 
the  head  of  the  stairs.  "  Archie  ought  to  be  here," 
she  said  anxiously.  "  I  can  see  that  the  child  is 
fretting  after  him.  Until  the  baby  was  born  she 
wouldn't  allow  herself  to,  but  now  " — she  made  a 
helpless  gesture — "  oh,"  said  she,  "  some  people  are 
beyond  my  understanding." 

Mary  Johnson,  tall  and  slender,  in  the  loose  drap- 
eries which  her  invalidism  compelled  her  to  wear, 
paused  upon  a  stair.  "  He  will  come,"  she  said 


356  TREASURE   TROVE 

loyally,  "  and  soon.  I  am  sure  of  it,  sure  of  it." 
She  had  her  secret  doubts,  but  afterwards  she  was 
glad  she  had  not  allowed  them  to  appear — for  Archie 
came  back. 

That  evening  as  Eva,  after  a  quiet  day,  was  lying 
looking  towards  the  small  and  merry  fire  by  which 
her  mother  sat,  a  familiar  knock  fell  upon  the  outer 
door.  Mrs.  Smart  got  up  slowly.  The  day  had 
been  a  busy  one,  and  she  was  tired,  but  the  servant 
being  out,  it  was  necessary  for  her  to  go  down. 
"  What  a  nuisance,"  she  said,  and  yawned  as  she 
carried  the  infant,  which  she  had  been  nursing, 
across  to  its  mother. 

"  It  was  Archie's  knock,"  said  the  girl  in  a  whis- 
per, her  large  brown  eyes  alight  with  hope  and 
fear. 

But  the  other  could  not  credit  it.  "  Oh  no,"  she 
said,  "  he  wouldn't  come  all  of  a  sudden  like  this, 
he'd  know  it  would  be  bad  for  you." 

"  Men  don't  think,"  said  Eva,  but  for  all  that  the 
fear  in  her  eyes  increased  and  the  hope  lessened. 
"  Oh  but,"  she  cried,  as  once  more  it  assailed  the 
silence,  "I  should  know  his  knock  in  a  thousand." 

"  Here,  I  must  go,"  said  Mrs.  Smart,  hastily 
placing  the  baby  in  the  crook  of  its  mother's  arm. 

She  had  not  troubled  to  light  the  hall-lamp  and 
the  passage  was  consequently  in  darkness ;  but  out- 
side the  glow  of  a  dead  sunset  still  faintly  irradiated 
the  sky,  and  by  its  light  Mrs.  Smart  in  opening  the 
door  was  able  to  recognise  her  visitor.  Eva  had 


TREASURE   TROVE  357 

been  right.  On  this  day  of  all  days,  when  she  was 
feeling  as  if  she  could  not  live  without  him  any 
longer,  he  was  come. 

Mrs.  Smart  held  out  a  hearty  hand.  "  Well  now, 
if  this  isn't  lucky,"  she  cried.  "  You're  the  man  of 
all  others  I  wanted  to  see,"  and  she  drew  him 
across  the  threshold. 

"Eva?"  said  he. 

"  She  had  a  little  daughter  this  morning  and 
both  are  doing  well." 

"  Thank  God,"  said  the  man  in  a  low  voice  and 
speaking  very  fervently;  and  from  that  moment, 
his  mother-in-law's  heart  melted  to  him.  He  was 
a  queer  creature,  but  it  was  evident  that  her  dear 
Eva  was  all  the  world  to  him.  "  Can  I — will  she 
be  able  to  see  me  ?  " 

"  Oh  yes,  but  you  mustn't  stay  long,"  and  she 
led  the  way  up  to  her  daughter's  room.  "  I  shall 
come  for  you  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour,"  and  then 
she  stood  aside  to  let  him  pass.  "  You  were  right, 
dearie,"  she  called  through  the  opening  door;  and 
drew  it  softly  to  behind  him,  only  too  glad  this 
time  to  be  left  alone — outside. 

It  was  not  until  some  days  later  that  they  were 
able  to  extract  from  the  wanderer  an  account  of 
his  doings.  The  Archie  who  had  returned  was 
browned,  indeed  almost  bronzed,  and  as  he  had  come 
straight  from  Liverpool  it  was  natural  to  suppose 
he  had  been  abroad.  He  looked  very  well,  wore 
excellent  clothes  and  had  an  altogether  prosperous 


358  TREASURE   TROVE 

appearance,  but  he  was  quieter  than  of  old,  less 
supercilious.  Wherever  he  had  been  and  whatever 
he  had  been  doing,  it  had  suited  both  his  health  and 
his  appearance.  He  had  put  on  flesh,  not  much, 
but  enough  to  give  him  greater  dignity  of  carriage ; 
and  he  had  lost  certain  little  mannerisms  which  had 
often  annoyed  his  mother-in-law. 

"  So  it  is  all  right  ?  "  said  Mary  Johnson  when 
he  went  to  see  her,  and  her  heart  beat  thankfully. 

"  Yes,  I'm  a  respectable  member  of  society  and 
shall  go  down  to  my  grave  as  such."  He  was  stand- 
ing by  the  window  looking  out  into  the  desolate 
garden  and  tapping  his  ringers  lightly  on  the  pane. 
"  But  it  is  dull— respectability." 

"  For  a  time,  but  that  phase  passes  and  after  a 
time  one  gets  to  take  the  ordinary  healthy  interest 
in  things."  She  knew.  Had  she  not  been  through 
it  all,  step  by  step,  just  as  he  was  doing? 

"  Well,  I  hope  so."  He  seemed  a  little  dubious, 
but  she  no  longer  thought  of  telling  him  whence  she 
derived  her  certainty.  Instead  she  began  to  ques- 
tion him  about  his  wanderings,  and  he  fenced  with 
her  lazily. 

"  Come  over  to-morrow,"  he  said,  "  and  you  shall 
hear  all  about  everything.  I've  brought  back  a 
curio  or  two,  and  the  doctor  has  given  permission 
for  them  to  be  inspected  in  Eva's  room  to-morrow." 

But  on  the  morrow  Mrs.  Johnson  was  prostrate 
with  one  of  her  attacks  of  pain;  and  Archie  and 
Eva  were  consequently  alone  when  the  former's 


TREASURE    TROVE  359 

trunks  were  unpacked,  alone  except  for  that  negli- 
gible third,  the  baby. 

They  were  wonderful  trunks.  Eva  lying  on  the 
outside  of  her  bed,  watched  her  husband  as  he  lifted 
treasure  after  treasure  out  of  its  wrappings,  silk 
from  China,  porcelain  and  ivories  from  Japan,  silver 
and  Lucknow  work  from  India,  lace  from  Ceylon, 
carven  gourds  from  the  West  Indies  and  a  hun- 
dred other  beautiful  and  precious  objects. 

"  Oh  Archie,  where  have  you  been,  where  did 
you  get  all  these  lovely,  lovely  things  ?  " 

Her  husband  handed  her  four  napkin  rings  of 
plain  thick  ivory.  "  The  Chinaman  who  sold  me 
these  nearly  slipped  in  two  thin  ones,"  he  said,  "  but 
I'd  been  told  to  watch  him  and  I  saw  them  in 
time.  The  beggars,  they'll  do  you  if  they  can.  For 
all  my  care  the  fellow  gave  me  a  bad  dollar  among 
the  change  when  I  paid  him." 

"  China,  India,  Italy,  Jamaica,"  said  Eva,  "  why 
you  must  have  been  round  the  world  ?  " 

"  Just  so,"  said  he,  "  I've  been — round  the 
world."  And  sitting  there  among  the  piles  of  for- 
eign-looking, foreign-scented  articles,  he  began  at 
the  beginning  and  told  her  all  that  she  wanted  to 
know.  He  was  not  certain  how  he  had  spent  the 
evening  of  the  day  upon  which  he  had  parted  from 
her ;  but  on  the  following  morning  he  had  presented 
himself  at  Bannerman's  office.  This  man,  after  leav- 
ing college,  had  run  through  a  fortune  but  was  now 
making  a  successful  business  out  of  rather  absurd 


360  TREASURE   TROVE 

beginnings.  He  was  small  and  alert-looking  with" 
that  peculiar  London  constitution  which  allows  a 
man  to  defy  most  of  the  so-called  laws  of  health 
and  be  none  the  worse  for  it.  When  Flowerdew 
made  his  appearance,  he  was  twisting  about  on  his 
heel  while  he  dictated  a  batch  of  letters,  but  when 
he  saw  that  his  visitor  was  an  old  college  chum  he 
dismissed  his  secretary  and  took  on  a  holiday  ap- 
pearance. 

"  But  I'm  calling  on  the  Labour  Bureau,  old  man, 
and  not  on  you,"  explained  the  newcomer. 

"  What  you  ?    Why  ?    Isn't  the  school  all  right  ?  " 

"  The  school  is,  but  I'm  not,"  and  he  made  a  clean 
breast  of  his  trouble. 

"Let  me  think  a  minute,"  said  Bannerman,  and 
rocked  himself  on  his  chair  for  some  time  in  silence. 
He  looked  up  once  as  if  appraising  his  companion ; 
and  finally,  picking  up  a  letter  which  was  lying  on 
the  top  of  an  orderly  heap  of  papers,  ran  his  eye 
down  it. 

"  Set  a  thief  to  catch  a  thief,"  he  observed  gen- 
ially. "  D'ye  know,  I  really  believe  this  would  be 
the  thing  for  you,"  and  he  tossed  the  letter  across. 
To  Flowerdew's  amazement  it  proved  to  be  from  a 
lawyer  who  was  desirous  of  finding  a  suitable  com- 
panion for  some  client  who  contemplated  a  trip 
round  the  world.  He  was  averse  to  taking  a  doc- 
tor, but  if  a  public  school  or  university  man  could 
be  persuaded  to  accompany  him,  the  remuneration 
would  be  good. 

"  And  that  means  ?  "  queried  Flowerdew. 


TREASURE    TROVE  361 

"  Drinks  like  a  fish,"  said  the  other  tersely. 

"  But " 

"  I  know,  but  let  me  tell  you  about  him  first. 
He's  all  right  when  he's  sober,  a  very  decent  chap; 
but  when  he's  drunk  they  say  he's  the  devil  and  all. 
His  family's  about  fed  up  with  him  I  understand, 
and  this  is  by  way  of  giving  him  a  last  chance.  The 
fellow's  rolling  in  money,  he's  over  twenty  thousand 
a  year  and  no  end  of  a  fine  place  down  in  Leicester- 
shire." 

"  Well,"  said  Flowerdew,  "  I  should  have  thought 
this  would  have  been  about  the  last  thing  I  ought 
to  undertake.  Good  God,  think  of  it,  the  pair  of 
us!" 

The  other  rubbed  a  shaven  chin.  "  I  don't  know," 
he  said.  "  You  see  you've  had  experience,  you 
know  when  he'll  be  feeling  bad  and  so  forth.  I 
should  think  if  anybody  could  keep  him  off  liquor 
it  might  be  you." 

"  But  I " 

"  Example's  better  than  precept.  How  about 
those  helot  johnnies?  " 

"  There's  something  in  that." 

"  You've  always  been  a  fastidious  fellow  and  to 
see  this  chap  making  a  beast  of  himself,  ruining 
his  health,  losing  his  wife's  affection,  a  gentleman 
too  with  an  old  name  and  any  amount  of  tin  oh,  it 
ought  to  tell." 

"  It's  a  queer  remedy  for  my  disease,  but  I  might 
try  it.  What  terms  ?  " 

"  Pretty  much  anything  you  like  to  ask.  Shouldn't 


362  TREASURE    TROVE 

be  too  modest,  a  job  like  this  is  a  beastly  fag  and 
you  were  always  a  damn  sight  too  conscientious. 
Now  let's  go  and  lunch." 

A  fortnight  later  Flowerdew  and  his  charge  were 
on  a  P.  and  O.  steamer  bound  for  Japan.  During 
the  first  few  days  of  their  companionship  Sir  An- 
drew St.  John  gave  proof  of  being  the  "  very  decent 
chap"  that  Bannerman  had  called  him.  He  was 
scholar  as  well  as  gentleman,  a  courteous,  broadly 
read,  intelligent  person,  and  before  they  reached 
Suez  Flowerdew  had  a  sincere  liking  for  the  man, 
a  liking  which  held  in  spite  of  subsequent  events. 
For  St.  John  was  one  of  those  who  are  as  if  pos- 
sessed by  a  devil,  one  who  only  picked  himself  out 
of  the  gutter  of  his  vice  to  fall  again.  For  six 
months,  travelling  restlessly  on  no  preconcerted 
plan  but  bearing  ever  eastward  St.  John  fled  the 
craving  that  was  in  his  own  breast.  His  so-called 
secretary  did  what  he  could  for  the  unfortunate 
man  and  during  his  lucid  intervals  St.  John,  recog- 
nising this,  showered  on  him  the  spoils  of  travel; 
but  when  he  was  drinking  he  was  as  a  wild  beast 
unchained.  There  were  ups  and  downs  but  on  the 
whole  the  man  grew  steadily  worse ;  and  Flowerdew, 
too  much  occupied  with  his  companion  to  think  of 
himself,  was  only  thankful  when  they  reached  Liver- 
pool and  he  could  hand  him  over  to  his  family. 
Lady  St.  John  begged  him  to  continue  with  them 
for  a  time,  but  Archie  excused  himself.  Thei 
would  he  come  back?  Her  husband  liked  him  sc 


TREASURE   TROVE  363 

much  and  it  would  be  such  a  comfort  to  have  an- 
other man,  besides  the  servants,  in  the  house. 
Archie  could  not  say,  but  if  she  would  leave  the 
offer  open,  he  would  write;  and  with  that  she  was 
obliged  to  be  content.  But  she  sighed  a  little  as 
she  turned  away.  Why  had  it  not  been  her  fate  to 
marry  some  such  man  as  the  self-contained  young 
secretary?  He  looked  strong  as  well  as  clever  and 
strength,  moral  strength,  had  become  to  Lady  St. 
John  the  one  thing  needful  in  a  man. 

Archie  Flowerdew  picked  up  a  piece  of  white 
brocade  and  unrolled  its  shining  breadth.  "Look 
at  the  design  of  that,"  he  said,  "  St.  John  gave  it 
to  me  when  we  were  at  Shanghai.  The  beggar  was 
always  giving  me  things — when  he  was  sober." 

"  You  had  a  bad  time,  I  am  sure,"  remarked  Eva 
sympathetically. 

"Ah,"  said  her  husband  with  a  grim  touch  in 
his  voice,  "but  I  never  had  a  moment  to  myself  and 
when  I  saw  him  going  down  and  down,  I — well  I 
couldn't  touch  the  beastly  stuff.  We  had  various 
adventures,"  he  paused  to  look  back,  remembering 
how  at  a  Chinese  port  he  had  lost  sight  of  his 
charge  and  found  him  in  an  opium  den,  half  dead. 
"In  fact  I  was  kept  on  the  trot  so  much  that  I 
hadn't  time  to  dwell  on  my  own  fancies." 

"  That  was  a  good  thing." 

"  The  best  possible." 

"And  now — what  do  you  think  of  doing?" 

"  I  told  you  of  Lady  St.  John's  offer." 


364  TREASURE   TROVE 

"But  that  would  mean  separation?" 

Flowerdew  nodded. 

"  Oh,  Archie,  no,  I  couldn't  stand  it  again."  Her 
voice  deepened  and  sank.  "  Oh  my  dear,  I  don't 
think  I  could  have  borne  it  a  day  longer.  I  knew 
that  a  time  must  come  when  my  certainty  that  yon 
would  return  would  give  way;  and  I  felt  it  getting 
nearer  and  nearer,  but  I  wouldn't  see  it,  I  wouldn't 
think  of  it.  Some  day  however,  I  should  have 
turned  a  corner  and  come  face  to  face  with  it,  and 
it  would  have  been  like  death.  You  mustn't,  oh 
you  mustn't  leave  me  again."  It  was  not  often  that 
Eva,  the  self-controlled,  expressed  herself  strongly 
and  Archie  was  grateful  to  her  for  the  little  out- 
burst. 

"  Then  I  must  take  up  scholastic  work  again," 
he  said  presently. 

His  wife  approved  of  the  idea.  "And  why  not 
here?" 

"Here?" 

"  Mother  talks  of  letting  this  house  but  I  am 
sure  she  would  rather  that  we  had  it  and  we  could 
begin  in  a  small  way.  Mary  would  send  us  her 
two  boys  and  only  the  other  day  Connie  Freeman 
was  complaining  that  the  nearest  school  was  your 
old  one  at  Eastborough  and  that  that  was  too  far 
away.  I  feel  certain  she  would  be  delighted  to 
have  one  nearer  for  her  Jack  and  Roy.  Yes,  and 
there  are  others." 

The  new  Archie  was  willing  to  begin  in  a  small 


TREASURE   TROVE  365 

way  and  build  his  house  brick  by  brick.  His  large 
ambitions  had  toppled  to  a  fall  and  now  he  was  con- 
tent to  settle  in  Eastham.  "  But  you  must  get  well 
before  we  can  decide,"  he  said. 

"I?"  laughed  Eva.  "I'm  perfectly  well,  it's 
only  mother's  old-fashioned  notions  that  keep  me 
here.  And  I'm  so  dreadfully  interested,  do  let  us 
talk  it  over." 

And  in  the  gathering  dusk  of  the  November 
afternoon  they  sat  hand  in  hand  like  a  couple  of 
children  and  discussed  the  home  that  was  to  be,  the 
home  that  should  be  founded  upon  love  and  sobriety 
and  self-sacrifice. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

ARCHIE  FLOWERDEW'S  capacity  for  teaching  was 
indubitable  and  Eastham  presently  came  to  acknowl- 
edge it.  The  Johnsons  and  Freemans  sent  their 
sons  and  were  pleased  with  the  result.  Old  friends 
of  Eva,  now  married  and  with  nurseries,  found 
the  new  school  a  convenience.  Flowerdew's 
methods  were  discussed  with  admiration  and  as  a 
result  he  was  presently  able  to  move  into  a  larger 
house.  He  chose  one  on  the  high  ground  beyond 
the  station,  a  big  gabled  red-brick  place  of  the  kind 
that  builders  term  artistic.  Beyond  its  large  garden, 
lay  a  broad  and  fairly  level  meadow  and  this  was 
converted  into  playing-fields,  while  a  depression  at 
one  end  was  enlarged  and  cemented  into  a  swim- 
ming bath.  Flowerdew  thought  himself  lucky  in 
finding  so  easily,  a  place  that  suited  his  require- 
ments and  he  was  the  sort  of  man  who  gathered  con- 
fidence from  success.  Before  many  years  were  over 
he  had  prepared  a  boy  for  Osborne  College  and  got 
him  in;  while  other  of  his  pupils  obtained  public 
school  scholarships.  But  his  reputation  was  chiefly 
that  of  a  man  who  was  successful  with  boys  of  mod- 
erate intelligence;  and  as  the  majority,  in  spite  of 
their  mothers,  are  not  particularly  clever,  he  bade 
fair  before  long  to  have  as  many  pupils  as  he  wanted. 

366 


TREASURE    TROVE  367 

To  Mrs.  Smart,  his  success  had  followed  as  a 
matter  of  course  upon  her  taking  over  the  farm 
from  Tamsin.  She  felt  that  the  powers  above  were 
smiling  upon  her  honest  attempt  to  make  amends, 
and  though  she  felt  so  she  was  careful  to  walk  deli- 
cately for  in  her  secret  heart  she  was  still  somewhat 
afraid.  Her  offence  had  been  unintentional!  To 
have  so  sinned  and  been  so  punished  makes  for  wari- 
ness, and  Mrs.  Smart  had  long  since  been  careful  to 
send  the  opal,  pearl,  amethyst  and  big  diamond,  with 
the  crushed  settings,  back  to  their  late  owner. 
Within,  on  the  paper  that  wrapped  the  stones  was 
inscribed  in  printed  characters :  "  From  the 
person  who  found  them."  Mrs.  Smart  was  no 
friend  to  exaggeration.  She  had  not  taken  the 
jewels,  she  had  only  found  them  and  though  it  was 
evidently  wrong  to  keep  what  you  found,  she  knew 
that  by  the  world  at  large  the  two  actions  were 
viewed  very  differently. 

During  the  autumn  that  followed  Willy's  depart- 
ure, she  had  been  unusually  self-absorbed.  She 
missed  him  at  every  turn,  and  so  missing  him  was 
continually  reminded  that  his  absence  was  due  to 
her  own  greed  of  gain,  of  unearned  money,  of 
wealth  to  which  she  had  no  right.  Eva  absorbed  in 
her  new  baby  and  new-found  husband,  hardly  no- 
ticed her  mother's  silence  and  Mrs.  Smart  was  left 
to  her  own  bitter  reflections.  The  fading  months 
of  that  year  were  the  most  unhappy  that  she  had 
known.  She  had  very  little  to  do,  and  after  all,  that 


368  TREASURE   TROVE 

little  was  for  herself  alone,  and  seemed  hardly 
worth  the  doing.  She  grew  to  spend  more  and  more 
time  with  her  hands  in  her  lap,  not  thinking,  but 
sunk  in  a  sort  of  black  depression.  It  was  a  good 
thing  for  her  when  Tamsin  began  to  make  demands 
upon  her  time,  discussing  the  transfer  of  the  farm 
and  begging  her  to  come  over  to  Ashwater.  About 
that  time  too,  a  letter  from  Willy  reached  her,  a 
letter  full  of  his  new  life  and  throbbing  with  joy. 
He  had  been  so  intensely  glad  to  go  that  his  mother 
loving  him,  could  no  longer  look  upon  his  absence 
as  entirely  a  misfortune.  If  her  loss  were  his  gain, 
she  must  put  up  with  it.  The  letter  roused  her 
from  her  abstraction,  it  told  her  where  to  write  and 
it  made  her  feel  that  her  boy  was  happy.  She  be- 
gan with  renewed  eagerness  to  make  her  prepara- 
tions for  leaving  Eastham;  and  Christmas  saw  her 
established  at  the  farm  and  as  busy  as  farm  folk 
ever  are  at  that  time  of  the  year. 

The  years  rolled  quietly  away,  the  Flowerdews 
moved  into  their  larger  house,  and  Mrs.  Smart 
who  had  slipped  into  her  new  life  as  a  hand  slips 
into  an  old  glove,  and  who  worked  for  the  love  of 
the  work  as  much  as  for  what  it  brought,  grew 
gently  a  little  and  a  little  older.  At  intervals  she 
lifted  the  old  desk  in  which  her  savings  were  de- 
posited from  its  shelf  in  her  wardrobe,  reckoned  the 
contents,  and  if  there  were  enough,  packed  them  into 
a  flat  brown  parcel  and  sent  them  to  Lady  Dudley 
Bodger. 


TREASURE    TROVE  369 

The  slow  mounting  up  of  the  sum  saved  had 
become  the  chief  interest  in  her  life,  and  having  a 
private  income  more  than  sufficient  for  her  wants, 
she  was  able  to  put  by  all  that  she  made.  She 
posted  her  parcels  in  London,  each  at  a  different 
office,  and  as  package  after  package  left  her  hands, 
as  the  years  passed  bringing  only  good  fortune  to 
those  she  loved,  as  Willy  began  to  talk  of  coming 
home,  her  old  cheeriness  of  outlook  began  to  re- 
assert itself.  It  seemed  enough  for  her  that  she 
should  have  work  to  do,  Eva  and  her  children  for 
the  summer  holidays  and  Willy's  letters;  and  she 
felt,  in  spite  of  what  had  happened,  that  she  was 
really  a  happy  and  a  lucky  woman. 

She  stood  one  evening  in  March  at  her  green- 
painted  door,  a  look  of  unusual  excitement  on  her 
face,  for  Willy  was  coming  home.  The  narrow 
path  to  the  gate  was  fringed  with  the  dull  purple 
of  violets,  the  yellows  of  primroses  and  daffodils, 
flowers  which  bloomed  year  after  year  in  the  bor- 
der, which  had  bloomed  there  when  she  was  a  child 
and  which  bloomed  there  now  that  her  children's 
children  had  come  about  her.  Mrs.  Smart's  cup 
was  full  to  overflowing,  for  Willy  after  years  of 
desultory  wandering  had  at  length  found  a  niche 
into  which  he  could  fit.  The  question  was  whether 
he  would  consent  to  fill  it.  During  an  expedition 
among  savage  tribes  upon  which  he  had  been  in- 
duced to  accompany  a  casual  acquaintance,  he  had 
shown  considerable  talent  for  dealing  with  native 


370  TREASURE   TROVE 

races,  and  this  had  been  remarked  on.  The  leader 
of  the  expedition,  upon  reaching  home,  had  men- 
tioned it  in  the  right  quarters  and  Willy  had  been 
offered  a  post  upon  the  outskirts  of  the  empire,  a 
post  which  Colonel  Smart  was  most  anxious  for  him 
to  accept.  His  mother,  when  the  matter  was  ex- 
plained to  her  felt  that  he  had  left  little  things  for 
greater,  but  that  the  new  Willy  might  be  unfamiliar. 
She  had  tried  once  to  point  out  the  way  in  which 
he  must  walk,  but  this  time  she  would  not  seek  to 
influence  him.  He  must  choose  and  with  what  he 
chose,  she  would  be  satisfied. 

"  He  will  be  a  great  man  one  of  these  days,"  as- 
serted William  Smart  delightedly. 

"  Great  ?  "  said  Mrs.  Smart  wistfully.  "  It  makes 
him  sound  a  long  way  off.  I  have  never  known  any 
great  people." 

"  But  no  man,"  smiled  the  Colonel,  "  is  great  to 
his  mother." 

She  thought  of  this  as  she  stood  looking  out. 
In  the  distance  the  white  smoke  clouds  of  his  train 
were  rolling  out,  prophesying  his  advent ;  and  nearer 
the  lambs  were  bleating  in  the  hill  pasture.  She 
had  taken  Tamsin's  advice  and  that  spring  the  "  two- 
three  yowes  "  had  each  presented  her  with  a  couple 
of  lambs,  nice  fat  little  fellows  who  were  now 
nearly  big  enough  to  kill. 

Mrs.  Smart  stood  for  some  minutes  in  the  door- 
way, her  face  very  bright,  her  eyes  full  of  a  happy 
peace.  The  debt  she  owed  was  being  paid,  the 


TREASURE   TROVE  371 

heavy  hand  of  misfortune  had  been  lifted  from  her 
children's  shoulders  and  her  conscience  was  at  rest. 
In  her  bosom,  buried  beyond  all  hope  of  resurrec- 
tion, lay  the  story  of  the  treasure  trove,  of  her  lapse 
from  the  morality  inculcated  by  civilisation,  and  of 
her  strong  endeavour  to  retrieve  her  position.  Her 
eyes  were  resting  upon  a  small  laburnum  tree  by  the 
gate,  but  she  was  not  thinking  of  its  promise  of 
bloom,  she  was  not  looking  at  the  soft  grey  velvet 
buds.  Willy  was  coming,  the  smoke-clouds  had 
disappeared  and  the  train  must  be  in  Ashwater  sta- 
tion. It  would  not  be  many  minutes  now  before  he 
came. 

Round  the  corner  of  the  house  strolled  two  com- 
fortably grubby  little  figures ;  and  Jocelyn  and  Mary 
Flowerdew  who,  as  Eva  was  expecting  another 
baby,  were  staying  at  the  farm,  trotted  up  to  their 
grandmother.  She  smiled  at  them  approvingly. 
"  Why  what  sturdy  fat  legs  you  have  Jocelyn ! " 
she  said,  as  if  she  had  never  noticed  it  before. 

"  Mother  says  I've  a  great  big  'normouse  bone 
inside,"  replied  the  child  gravely. 

His  grandmother  gently  pinched  the  members  in 
question.  "  And  some  muscle,  I  think." 

He  stooped  towards  her  confidentially.  "  And 
my  bleed,"  he  whispered. 

Mrs.  Smart  smiled.  "  What  have  you  been  do- 
ing? "  she  asked. 

"  Susan  took  us  to  see  the  lambs  but  their  mothers 
wouldn't  let  us  go  near  them." 


372  TREASURE    TROVE 

"  Wouldn't  they  ? "  she  used  the  sympathetic 
tone  which,  when  addressed  to  children,  means  so 
little. 

"No,  the  mother-lambs  got  up  and  baa-ed  over 
the  babies  and  licked  them  and  when  we  went  near 
they  opened  their  mouths  at  us." 

"  And,"  remarked  Mary  in  her  treble  voice,  "  I 
said  '  zay'll  bite  you.' ' 

"  Dear,  dear,  you  see  they  don't  know  you  yet." 

"  Why's  you  standin'  there,  Granny  ?  "  It  was 
unusual  for  their  grandmother  to  be  idle  even  for  a 
moment. 

"  I'm  waiting  for  Uncle  Willy.  He  is  coming 
home  to-day." 

"  Is  he  coming  now  ?  " 

"  Yes  now,  now  at  once,  his  train  is  here  already 
and  is  walking  along  the  roads  toward  us.  We'll 
go  down  to  the  gate  and  see  if  he  has  turned  the 
corner  yet." 

They  ran  before  her  down  the  path  and  through 
the  gateway,  their  sudden  appearance  annoying  and 
discomposing  two  grave  black  rooks  who  in  a  dig- 
nified manner  were  bowing  before  a  third,  and  en- 
treating her  to  choose  between  them.  She,  with  an 
expressionless  eye  on  each,  had  been  standing  mo- 
tionless, and  now  walked  slowly  across  to  the  other 
side  of  the  road.  The  children  were  delighted. 
"  Black  pigeons !  "  they  cried  gleefully,  as  the  birds, 
rising  at  their  approach,  sailed  indignantly  away. 
"  Look  at  the  black  pigeons,  Granny !  " 


TREASURE   TROVE  373 

But  Mrs.  Smart  had  neither  eyes  nor  ears  for 
them.  A  tall  bearded  man  was  turning  the  corner 
of  the  road  and  the  flame-red  of  sunset  threw  the 
square-shouldered  familiar  figure  into  bold  relief. 
"  Willy,"  said  the  mother  under  her  breath  and 
stood  looking  at  the  new  Willy,  the  Willy  who  had 
come  back. 

The  man's  eyes  were  turned  eagerly  towards  the 
farm  and  even  at  that  distance  Mrs.  Smart  could 
see  the  difference  in  the  bearing,  the  ease  and  de- 
cision of  movement,  the  swiftness  of  the  glance. 
The  boy  was  gone — for  ever,  but  she  could  love  the 
man  who  had  come  back. 

"  Willy !  "  she  cried  and  stepped  beyond  the  gate, 
and  in  a  moment  as  it  seemed,  he  had  cleared  the 
space  between  them. 

"  Oh  Mother,  Mother,"  he  cried,  his  arms  about 
her,  "  but  it  is  good  to  see  you  again." 


THE    END 


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